TTM Success - Mike Simms

Here are some quintessential early 90s cards that were added to the autograph album by way of a TTM success from Mike Simms.  The above 1991 Fleer looks great signed.

I also got back a 1991 Topps, 1992 Topps, 1992 Upper Deck and a 1991 Score.

Simms (b. 1967) played in the majors from 1990 to 1992 and 1994 to 1999 for the Astros and Rangers.  He had 163 hits, 36 home runs and a .247 batting average. 

I mailed to Simms on March 12, 2024, and got the cards back on April 14, 2025, for a 398-day TAT.

A Signed Card From Jimmy K

A while back, Jimmy from the Wood Duck games gave me this signed 1992 Upper Deck signed by Manny Ramirez. He had this card for a long time and was willing to part with it.  I like the full Manny signature; I got a short sig the other day at the National. 

Thank you so much, Jimmy!

TTM Success - Joe Slusarski

Some late 80s/early 90s cards came back signed TTM when I got these cards back from Joe Slusarski.  I had this 1988 Topps Traded that turned out nicely.

I believe most of these cards came out of the boxes of cards that my Aunt Karen gave me. All of these turned out great, as well.

Slusarski (b. 1966) played in the majors from 1991 to 1993, 1995 and 1999 to 2001 for the A's, Brewers, Astros and Braves.  He had a record of 13-21 with 173 strike outs and a 5.18 ERA.

I mailed to Slusarski on November 15 and got the cards back on May 23, for a 189-day TAT.

2021 National Free Signer - Cecil FIelder

One of the free VIP party signers was a pretty big name, Cecil Fielder.  I needed Fielder for my 1987 set, so I was really excited to try to finally get that off of the list.  I had joined a private signing maybe 3 years ago, or so, and never got the card back.  So, here the card is, and it is off of my list.

Fielder would only sign one per, so my friend, Nate, got the above 1991 Upper Deck Fielder's Feat card signed for me.  Andrew got the 1992 Upper Deck done.

I went back through the line and got this playing card done.  My mom had given mea bag of cards she found at Goodwill, and there were two incomplete sets of these cards in the bag.  I haven't gotten any of them signed, so adding this Fielder to my album was something nice to get done.

Fielder (b. 1963) played in the majors from 1985 to 1988 and 1990 to 1998 for the Blue Jays, Tigers, Yankees, Angels and Indians.  He had 1,313 hits, 319 home runs and a .255 batting average.  He finished 2nd in the AL MVP race twice (1990 and 1991) and was a 3-time All Star (1990, 1991 and 1993).  He was also a 2-time Silver Slugger Award winner.

Fielder led the AL in home runs twice (51 in 1990 and 44 in 1991) and RBIs 3 times (1990, 1991 and 1992).  He won the World Series with the Yankees in 1996, batting .391 in that series.  He appeared on the 2004 Hall of Fame ballot, but received only 0.2% of the vote.

TTM Success - Steve Decker

I had a few Steve Decker cards put aside because I had heard that he had been scouting Wood Ducks games.  I never did see him at the park, but I always kept some close by.  So, I took some of those cards that had been sitting around, and sent them TTM for him to sign.

Decker signed the 1993 Topps at the top of the post, and also a 1992 Stadium Club, 1993 Upper Deck, 1992 Donruss and a 1992 Upper Deck.

Decker (b. 1965) played in the majors from 1990 to 1993, 1995, 1996 and 1999 for the Giants, Marlins, Rockies and Angels.  He had 152 hits, 13 home runs and a .221 batting average.

I mailed to Decker on October 7 and got the cards back on October 26, for a 19-day TAT.

TTM Success - Keith Miller

I got a bunch of junk wax era cards out of my boxes with this TTM success from Keith Miller.  He signed 5 cards for me, and they all turned out really well.  I don't know how long I had the above 1991 Score, but I know I opened a ton of them way back when, so it was nice to get one into my album.

Miller also signed a 1992 Upper Deck, 1988 Topps, 1989 Topps and 1991 Topps.

Miller (b. 1963) played in the majors from 1987 to 1995 for the Mets and Royals.  He had 347 hits, 12 home runs and a .262 batting average.

I mailed to Miller on June 1 and got the cards back on June 23, for a 22-day TAT.

Another TTM Success From Danny Tartabull

I had gotten Danny Tartabull in the past, but when I did, I didn't get him on an 87 Topps for my set.  So, I waited around for quite a while, and finally sent to him again.  When I did, I also included this 1992 Upper Deck Royals checklist.  This card looks really cool, and I was glad I sent it along and paid Tartabull's fee.

Of course, I sent the 98 along, and it turned out great.  I don't know what took me so long, but I'm glad the card is crossed off of my list and in my 87 album.

I mailed to Tartabull on March 9 and got the cards back on May 12, for a 64-day TAT.  I paid a fee of $10/card.

TTM Success - Jerry Browne

It is obvious that there really is no rhyme or reason to who I mail to and what cards I send.  The exceptions, however, are 1987 Topps cards and Orioles.  Still, one could say that my lack of a pattern is a pattern.  Really, what I look for, in the simplest of terms, is for cards that I think will look cool when signed.

That being said, I really enjoyed the 1995 Score set, and wanted to get a few of those cards in my autograph album.  When I saw that Jerry Brown signed TTM, I pulled the above 1995 Score, and went through my boxes for other cards to send along with it.  I had a bunch of Browne's stuff, so I sent 5 cards out to be signed.

Of his Topps issues, I sent out the above 1992 and 1993 Topps.  Both turned out really well.

I also sent out the above 1992 Upper Deck and 1993 Stadium Club.  These also look great.

Browne (b. 1966) played in the majors from 1986 to 1995 for the Rangers, Indians, A's and Marlins.  He had 866 hits, 23 home runs and a .271 batting average.

I mailed to Browne on April 21 and got the cards back on May 1, for a 10-day TAT.

TTM Success - Harvey Pulliam

I added a few early 90s cards with this TTM success from Harvey Pulliam that I received.  This 1992 Donruss The Rookies turned out really nice, I think.  The card came out of one of the boxes that I got from my mom a while back.  It was in a pack that had been opened at the former card shop, then put away.  It's cool to have pulled it years later and sent it off for an auto.

These two cards are pretty plain, but they still are nice ones to add to the album.

Pulliam (b. 1967) played in the majors from 1991 to 1993 and 1995 to 1997 for the Royals and Rockies.  He had 49 hits, 8 home runs and a .262 batting average.

I mailed to Pulliam on August 5 and got the cards back on September 5, for a 31-day TAT.

TTM Success - Dave Fleming

This was a really cool TTM success.  Not becaus Dave Fleming was a star, or anything like that.  It was a cool TTM success for me because it was already set up by someone else, somewhere in Kentucky.  When I was on my trip to see Andrew for his graduation, he and I stopped at a card shop in Bowling Green and searched some boxes.  There were a bunch of Fleming cards all together, so I checked to see if he signed TTM.  I saw that he did, so I bought 5 of the cards and when I got back home, I sent them out.

The cards are rather pedestrian, but I thought it was still something really cool, and it tied back into my trip.  THe above 1993 Triple Play turned out really nice.  I remember opening up a bunch of packs of 1992 and 1993 Triple Play; this was one of the first products I was able to afford a full box of, back in the day.

I added one card to the Topps project, the bottom right 1993 Topps.  I also have a 5,000-count box of 1993 Fleer, but rarely am able to get into it, as it is on the bottom of all of my other boxes.  The two Upper Deck cards turned out nice, I think.

Fleming (b. 1969) played in the majors from 1991 to 1995 for the Mariners and Royals.  He had a career record of 38-32 with 303 strike outs and a 4.67 ERA.

I mailed to Fleming on May 24 and got the cards back on June 2, for a 9-day TAT.

TTM Success - Bill Wegman

I got a bunch of cards signed by Bill Wegman in this TTM success.  I don't usually send Upper Deck cards from the 90s, but I did send this one from 1992 out.  I don't have much bulk of Upper Deck from 1989 to 1993, and when I have a choice, I tend to lean more toward Topps.  Still, this card looks nice signed.

Wegman sent one of his own cards, this yellow one, which is a testimonial card.  The red 1988 Score looks really nice.  I like this set, since it has a bunch of bold colors and they all scan well.

I got four different Topps cards signed by Wegman, 1987, 1988, 1993 and 1995.  They all look about the same, but I'm happy to have gotten them.

Wegman (b. 1962) played in the majors from 1985 to 1995 for the Brewers.  He had a career record of 81-90 with 696 strike outs and a 4.16 ERA.

I mailed to Wegman on April 8 and got the cards back on April 22, for a 14-day TAT.

Baseball is Back In Kinston

Since the end of the 2011 season, professional baseball has been missing from Eastern North Carolina.  The Kinston Indians picked up and moved to Zebulon, outside of Raleigh and assumed the team name of the Carolina Mudcats, who had relocated to Pensacola Florida.  I have missed having a minor league team close to home since Zebulon is about an hour away.

The Texas Rangers have stepped up and now own a Carolina League affiliate and have placed them in Kinston.  They are known as the Down East Wood Ducks.  While I don't care much for the "Down East" moniker, I do think the Wood Duck logo is pretty cool.  The team colors are also really nice, it seems that their jerseys will be green and orange.

The hats the guys wore today were tan with the Ducks logo, but they didn't have any of those hats for sale.  I picked up the black one shown above.  It is tough for me to don another hat other than my O's one, but I do believe in backing this team fully.  I hated when the Indians left, so I plan on letting it be known that I am happy that these guys are here.

They had a meet the team event tonight which coincided with their first ever practice.  This was open to the public, so Chris and I decided to head to Grainger Stadium and check the team out.

Chris tried his hand at "graphing" the limited amount of cards that we had.  We had cards of coaches Howard Johnson and Bobby Rose; and one Bowman Chrome card of Rangers prospect Michael O'Neill.  Above, you can see Chris chatting it up with Rangers prospect, Jairo Beras.  I ordered some cards of the Rangers prospects, but they haven't come yet.  I'm hoping they come tomorrow for the exhibition game against Mount Olive College.

They did a really good job getting historic Grainger Stadium ready for the season.  It is just like I remember it from when they were the Indians.

I'm really happy that the Rangers are the ownership group of this team.  That means that they have the capital to ensure that things are taken care of and can invest in the upkeep of the stadium, regardless of how ticket sales are going.  My hope is that ticket sales won't be a problem, but I'm sure that some days will be better than others out there.

The concession stands were open while we were there, so I went ahead and tried a hot dog tonight.  It was pretty good.  Not as good as the mac n cheese and crab dog, but I enjoyed it.

I was able to "rack" while I was at the event tonight.  I got coach Bobby Rose before the game, and talked to him a bit.  He was really friendly.  I also got Howard Johnson.  I was really prepared for Johnson,  I had a bunch of his cards to get signed, and had my auto book set up.  I did really well in getting stuff signed.  The above 1992 Upper Deck Iooss Collection card came out really well.  I had a silver Sharpie at the ready, and am glad it came out the way it did.

These two cards came out really nice, as well.  The hologram card looks so great in person.

I got these above cards taken care of as well.  The 1987 Topps was the card that I really wanted to add to the autograph album; some of the others were ones I liked, but that 87 had to get done.  Thankfully, I was able to pull it off.

Surprisingly, these are two of the only three Bobby Rose cards I could find in my entire card collection.  I went through a 4,000-count box at my LCS, and still wasn't able to find one.  He was really friendly, though, and I will have to pick up some more of his cards.

Michael O'Neill was the only prospect card that I was able to find, and I was happy to get this 2014 Bowman Chrome signed.  He is the nephew of former Yankee Paul O'Neill.  His wife and my sister-in-law are actually cousins.

Finally, I was able to get this pocket schedule signed by the entire team, sans coaches.  I didn't bring any baseballs, so this was all that I could find on such short notice.  It will looks really cool, and I will eventually have it framed.

Tomorrow, I have the exhibition game against Mount Olive College.  I hope to get a few more autos tomorrow, as I hope my COMC order comes in.

TTM Success - Skeeter Barnes

Here are some nice mid-90s cards that I was able to get signed by Skeeter Barnes.  The above 1992 Upper Deck looks great, especially since it is a horizontal card.  I also like the old Tigers jersey.

Stadium Club always looks nice when signed.  This is a 1992 Stadium Club.  I've had a few that I could have sent out, but they always got trumped by something else, most times.  I'm glad I sent this one, though, because it turned out great.

The 1993 Gold was lying around on my desk for what seemed like forever.  I'm glad I finally was able to put it to some use.

Barnes (b. 1957) played in the majors from 1983-85, 87, 89 and 91-94 for the Reds, Expos, Cardinals and Tigers.  He had 159 hits, 14 home runs and a .259 batting average in his MLB career.

I mailed to Barnes on November 8 and got the cards back on December 1, for a 23-day TAT.

TTM Success - Juan Samuel

 I feel like horizontal cards look the best when signed.  When it is an action horizontal card, they really shine.  This 1992 Upper Deck Juan Samuel that I got recently might be one of the all-around best looking autos/cards that I have seen so far.  Samuel's signature looks awesome, and really fits the card well.  This is a great example of being able to take a junk wax era card and reapply putting some purpose behind it.

The top left 1985 Topps Glossy All Stars turned out really well, also.  I was able to add a 1985 Topps, 1988 Topps (All Star) and a 1989 Topps of Samuel to my autograph album on top of the 1992 Upper Deck.

Samuel (b. 1960) played in the majors from 1983 to 1998 for the Phillies, Mets, Dodgers, Royals, Reds, Tigers and Blue Jays.  He had 1,578 hits, 161 home runs and a .259 batting average.  He was a three-time All Star and finished as high as 13th in the NL MVP voting (1987).  Samuel appeared on the 2004 Hall of Fame ballot and received 0.4% of the vote.

Samuel also managed 51 games for the Orioles in 2010 where he went 17-34.  He was replaced by Buck Showalter, who has managed the Orioles since.

I mailed to Samuel on April 20 and got the cards back on May 20, for a 30-day TAT.  I sent the cards to Citizens Bank Park.