TTM Success - Les Mueller

Today, I received a TTM success from another member of the 1945 World Champion Tigers, Les Mueller.

I mailed to Mr. Mueller on January 7, 2012 and received the ball back today, January 17, 2012, making him a 10-day TAT.  Mueller signed my ball for free.  I had included questions (much like I did with Milt Welch), but didn't get any answers back.  One look at the signature can tell you that Mr. Mueller is well up there in age (he is 92).


Les Mueller (b. 1919) played for two seasons in the majors (1941 and 1945) for the Tigers.  He had a career record of 6-8 with a 3.78 ERA and 50 strikeouts.  He pitched two scoreless innings in the 1945 World Series.  Mueller also, according to his Wikipedia page, pitched in 19 2/3 innings in a single game and left having given up only one run.  Let's see one of today's pitchers top that...

Mueller is my 44th TTM success and is the 4th living member out of 5 from the 1945 Tigers that I have gotten TTM.  The last one I need is Ed Mierkowicz.

Cal Ripken TTM Success

Wait.  before you get excited, this TTM success is over 20 years old.  I don't think it is nearly as easy to get him TTM these days.

I mailed to Cal back when I was 10 or 11, so probably around 1991 or so..  I got this signed postcard in return and I remember thinking it was really cool that I could get an autograph through the mail.  Who would have thought that 20+ years later that I would be this involved in TTMs and autographs.

I really like the post card itself.  I mean, look how young Cal was!  He had HAIR!

The reason you guys haven't seen this autograph yet is because I had it buried in my foot locker and dug it out yesterday.

Growing up, Cal was my favorite player.  He still  is, of course, but I have added a few other players to the list.

Mickey Mantle's Obituary

I woke up early this morning and decided to do a little bit of cleaning in the Man Cave.  In one of the closets, I have my old foot locker that my grandfather gave me for Christmas back when I was 8 or 9 or so.  It is actually one of the Christmas presents from my childhood that I distinctly remember and probably have gotten the most use of.  I use my foot locker (which, after 20+ years, is a bit of disrepair) to store old magazines, newspapers, comic books, starting lineup figures, a Cal Ripken Wheaties box, etc.  You get the idea.

Well, while going through the foot locker this morning, I found a Mickey Mantle Legends magazine.  When flipping through the magazine, a folded-up newspaper article fell out.  I unfolded the article to find the obituary for Mantle that was printed in the Winston-Salem Journal upon his death in August 1995.

I know it is kind of morbid, but it is baseball history and I wanted to share with you something I put away in 1995 and stored for all these years.

Also, I apologize for the scans, as newspaper articles are kind of hard to fit onto my scanner and are even harder to read, once they've been scanned.  I hope you are able to read the whole article.  You should be able to click on the pictures to read them better, I think.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Trading With Scott

 I completed a trade this past week with a guy I met at the last card show named Scott.  We have been talking ever since the show about working out a deal.  He is a big Red Sox fan, so I went through my stuff and found some cards I thought he would like.  Here are some highlights of the package he sent my way:

 I already had this 2009 Topps Nolan Reimold RC, but when I saw that he had it and would give it up for some Red Sox base card, I went ahead and claimed it.  You can't go wrong with Reimold for me, since he is one of my favorite current players.

 Scott read my blog and saw that he had a 2010 Allen and Ginter that I needed.  Turns out, it was card #277, Regis Philbin.

 He included this sweet Adam Jones relic from Upper Deck Sweet Spot.  I think of all of the Upper Deck products, I miss Sweet Spot the most.

 Scott figured out pretty quickly that the best way to impress me, is to do something nice for my son.  He included a couple Tim Lincecum cards for Chris' collection.  I have to check, but I'm pretty sure that Chris didn't have either card.  He was really happy to get a couple cards in the mail.

 Finally, here is this die cut Nick Markakis from Upper Deck X.  I think Upper Deck missed the mark on this set; it kind of looked like, at the time, that it was rushed.  Of course, a lot of what Upper Deck did in those final years was questionable, but this is actually a very sharp looking card.

I'm really glad Scott and I were able to come together on a trade.  I actually have 2 more trades in the works.  I mailed off packages yesterday to Dodgerbobble and Eutaw Street Cardboard, so I'm hoping I have some stuff to post (along with some hopeful TTM requests) this coming week leading up to Fan Fest.

Thanks for the Trade Scott!  I hope we can come together on another trade really soon!

TTM Success - Milt Welch

I decided the other day that I would start a small project with my TTM attempts.  I want to try to get signed baseballs from the remaining members of the 1945 World Series Champion Detroit Tigers.  Currently, there are 5 living members of the team.  I already had 2 of them in Virgil Trucks and Billy Pierce.

So, on January 7, I sent out 3 TTM requests to the other remaining members of the team; today, I got one of them back.

Milt Welch (b. 1924) was a catcher on the 1945 Tigers.  He only played in one game that season and during that game, he came to bat only two times.  He didn't get a hit in any of those at bats.  He wore uniform number 23 during his lone game that season.

When I sent my TTM request to Mr. Welch, I included a note with a couple questions, hoping he would respond.  Mr. Welch did respond briefly by writing beside my questions.

Did you save anything from the game you played in? No.

Did you receive a World Series Ring? Yes.

Are you still a baseball fan today, and if so, who do you follow? I watch all games, no favorite anymore.  Just a fan of the game - Milt Welch.

I am really happy that Mr. Welch took the time to answer my questions.  They were pretty simplistic questions, but I wasn't wanting an essay.  I'm happy he took the time to do all of this.  I did the same for the other two members of the team that I mailed to, so I hope they also answered theirs.

Welch is my 43rd TTM success.  It took six days for me to get my ball back and he signed for free.  Also, unlike yesterday's TTM failure, I got my pen back!

TTM Failure - Marvin Miller

Normally, I write about all of the TTM successes I have, but sometimes, there is a failure or two mixed in.  Today, was a failure.  I received my mailer back from Marvin Miller, whom I had really wanted to get an autograph of, but inside my mailer was my ball (which was blank) and this note.

Part of me wants to write a note to Mr. Miller, include this note and see about getting the pre-approval for the autograph.  Another part of me wants to say heck with it and go after someone else.

I understand what he is getting at with the note and the Ebay comment.  I have seen too many times where people abuse the privilege of TTM by sending 4, 5, 6 cards to someone instead of requesting only one autograph for themselves.  All the time on sportscard forum there are people who talk about sending 6 cards at a time and complain when only one comes back signed.


Of course, I just did an Ebay search of Miller's autograph... I think he might be more concerned about diminishing the value of HIS autograph; signed and authenticated Marvin Miller baseballs are going anywhere between $150 - $300 on Ebay.

So, that being said, I may send a letter thanking him for his time, that way, I can climb off the bitter bus, because, really, it is his choice who to sign for.

I would have liked my pen back, though.....

TTM Success - Tom Umphlett

Who? I know you are wondering who Tom Umphlett is.  I didn't know who he was until I stumbled upon him on sportscard forum and saw that he lives in Ahoskie, NC.

Ahoskie is a small town in northeast NC where we do a big chunk of our work with my job.  One of our clients is based in Ahoskie.  I had never heard of the place until I started my job in 2007.  Since then, I have been there countless times.

I thought it would be cool if I tried Mr. Umphlett TTM.  He was born in 1930 and played for the Red Sox in 1953 and the Senators in 1954 and 1955.

He finished second in the 1953 Rookie of the Year voting to Harvey Kuenn after batting .283 (140 hits in 495 at bats) with 27 doubles, 3 home runs and 59 RBIs.

For whatever reason, Umphlett didn't last in the majors beyond 1955, ultimately retiring after only 3 seasons with 285 hits, 6 home runs and a lifetime average of .246.  He managed for several years in the minors after his retirement.

I mailed to Mr. Umphlett on December 29, 2011 and got the ball back today (January 11, 2012), making this a 13-day TAT.  Umphlett is my 42nd TTM success.