Totally butchered the Bryan Holaday card but he was nice enough to fix it for me.
Hey, after 1,300+, you had to screw up ONE card! At least you got the date correct.
STAY HEALTHY!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Buck Martinez sent back a cool write up about his first HR
Here is what he wrote on the letter
I have the ball as there were no bleachers in the outfield.
I believe it was a fastball
In 1969 there were no "Historonics" on every HR it was part of your job!
What you may not know is that the half inning before my HR Bob Allison knocked me out at home plate on a tag play. He was out , I was out, but stayed in the game and hit my 1st big league HR. That play at the plate was identical to the play in July 1985 in Seattle when I tagged out 2 runners @ the plate.
This is the blurb of the play on 7-9-1985 via www.retrosheet.org MARINERS 3RD: Bradley singled; Davis flied out to center; Filer balked [Bradley to second]; G. Thomas singled to right [Bradley out at home (right to catcher), G. Thomas out at home (catcher to left to catcher)]; Buck Martinez broke ankle on collision at HP with Phil Bradley; Gorman Thomas ran to 3B on throw home; Martinez (on ground) threw into LF; George Bell threw home and Martinez made catch and tag while seated; HP umpire yelled at Martinez to show him the ball before calling out Thomas.
<< <i>Congrats on the Kershaw! Always love seeing this thread updated. >>
For the last few season Kershaw has been super fan friendly to TTMers if you send during Spring Training or the season you have a shot to have something come back right before the next years Spring Training there are some nice returns posted over on SCN
I've seen your First Touchdown project (since I mostly collect football) and now I'm just paying attention to this one. Great stuff. I like how Bryan Holaday corrected the info! Eugenio Suarez's, Joe Carter's, and Ron Darling's all were done pretty neatly, very nice.
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Amazing project and thread; just read it all the way through.
It must have been a real thrill for many of these players to hit their first homers off of eventual HOFers. I counted three that did so off of Sandy Koufax! I didn't tally them up but it felt like to me that Fergie Jenkins and Bert Blyleven (no surprise!) gave up the most first homerun balls among HOF pitchers, and perhaps Jim Perry (among the non-HOFers) was tagged most often. Do you have the actual tallies?
Great project and thanks for continually updating.
I have no idea how I've missed this post in the past. I just spent a whole hour sitting here going through each page. You have a very cool project and definitely something to be quite proud of. Best of luck!
<< <i>Amazing project and thread; just read it all the way through.
It must have been a real thrill for many of these players to hit their first homers off of eventual HOFers. I counted three that did so off of Sandy Koufax! I didn't tally them up but it felt like to me that Fergie Jenkins and Bert Blyleven (no surprise!) gave up the most first homerun balls among HOF pitchers, and perhaps Jim Perry (among the non-HOFers) was tagged most often. Do you have the actual tallies?
Great project and thanks for continually updating. >>
Thanks for the kind words -- I have toyed with this for awhile, I wish I added the pitchers and stadiums to my spreadsheet when I started -- since it has been slow I might go back and add them -- will take awhile though.
If you looked back on the most recent posts you will notice there have been many months between them -- this is do mainly because the flow of returns has been slowed dramatically -- I have sent to all the hobby friendly guys and nowadays when I do send out they are to long shots and very low % returners.
So this past July I took a super longshot which could have been a TTM Epic Fail but 4 months later I will have to say it was not.
On July 18, 2015 I sent out 51 requests and I had no expectations that I would get any back ~ I was hoping for the best.
My mailing was to all the living Hall of Famers that hit a Homerun that I did not have -- I sent them to the National Baseball Hall of Fame a week before the 2015 Ceremony -- this year they inducted Biggio, Martinez, Johnson and Smoltz.
My thought was that maybe by sending them to the HOF they might have a quite moment during Hall of Fame Weekend to peruse through some of their mail. I wrote a nice letter explaining my collection and how their card would be a great addition to it -- added some first HR stories like the ones within this thread. I included an extra card for them -- purchased some Jimi Hendrix stamps so when the envelopes came back I would know right away what was inside. I was all set hoping for everyone of them to come back.
Its been 4 months since Hall of Fame Weekend and I guess its a good time to recap
19 Days letter an envelope is waiting on my table with a Hendrix stamp -- How Cow -- I sorta quickly open it up and I do see that it is signed
BAM!!!! --- Mike Schmidt
POOF!!! --- looks like the dreaded Ghost Signed Mike Schmidt
Lots of info on this version of his auto and I was a bit disappointed
Next came a bunch of mail sent back directly from the HOF with a stamp that stated will not accept forwarded mail -- all came back on 8-26
Johnny Bench
Carlton Fisk
Bob Gibson
Sandy Koufax
Ozzie Smith
Carl Yastrzemski
These have also been returned but looks like it was forwarded on from the HOF but not accepted by the player at the address it was sent
Andre Dawson
Barry Larkin
Tony Perez
Red Schoendienst
Bob Uecker
Envelopes with the Jimi stamp started to trickle in the --- all the ones below came back with no signatures on the cards but did include a postcard or slips that stated their price lists.
Luis Aparicio
Yogi Berra (a letter was sent that he was unable to sign mail -- he passed away shortly after)
George Brett
Steve Carlton
Orlando Cepeda
Gaylord Perry
Jim Rice
Nolan Ryan
Tom Seaver
Robin Yount
To date I have not received word on the following
Hank Aaron
Roberto Alomar
Craig Biggio
Lou Brock
Rod Carew
Bobby Cox
Dennis Eckersley
Whitey Ford
Tom Glavine
Rickey Henderson
Reggie Jackson
Ferguson Jenkins
Randy Johnson
Greg Maddux
Juan Marichal
Willie Mays
Willie McCovey
Paul Molitor
Eddie Murray
Jim Palmer
Brooks Robinson
Frank Robinson
Ryne Sandberg
Joe Torre
Billy Williams
Dave Winfield
And now to the 3 returns that have made my mailing worth it -- which is 3 more than I though i would receive - I believe that they are real autos but would welcome any thoughts
Joe Morgan -- came back to me on 8-29-2015
Bill Mazeroski -- came back on 10-2-2015
And 2015 inductee John Smoltz -- came back on 10-31-2015
I took a swing -- not a homerun but maybe a single the thrill on receiving anything signed back was worth it!
Congrats on those three returns. Always nice to look at this thread. Keep it going!
STAY HEALTHY!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Wishing all a very Happy New Year -- hope 2016 is great for all.
Been a slow year for the my 1st HR Project -- sent to some very low percent-ers and had some hits -- close to 1500 total returns and hopefully I will get there in 2016 -- here are the additions since my last post
Can you think of a better place for Carl Sheib to hit his first HR than Shibe Park?
STAY HEALTHY!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
I don't get back to the boards much these days, but your project is one of my favorite topics and it's great to see the new pulls. I see you got two Venezuelans in the recent batch. Have you had much success TMT to South America? Thanks for sharing and good luck going forward.
Comments
Did get my first returns of players that hit their first in 2014
Totally butchered the Bryan Holaday card but he was nice enough to fix it for me
Was super thrilled to get the Clayton Kershaw return
Hey, after 1,300+, you had to screw up ONE card! At least you got the date correct.
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
saucywombat@hotmail.com
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
Buck Martinez sent back a cool write up about his first HR
Here is what he wrote on the letter
I have the ball as there were no bleachers in the outfield.
I believe it was a fastball
In 1969 there were no "Historonics" on every HR it was part of your job!
What you may not know is that the half inning before my HR Bob Allison knocked me out at home plate on a tag play. He was out , I was out, but stayed in the game and hit my 1st big league HR.
That play at the plate was identical to the play in July 1985 in Seattle when I tagged out 2 runners @ the plate.
This is the blurb of the play on 7-9-1985 via www.retrosheet.org
MARINERS 3RD: Bradley singled; Davis flied out to center; Filer
balked [Bradley to second]; G. Thomas singled to right [Bradley
out at home (right to catcher), G. Thomas out at home (catcher
to left to catcher)]; Buck Martinez broke ankle on collision
at HP with Phil Bradley; Gorman Thomas ran to 3B on throw home;
Martinez (on ground) threw into LF; George Bell threw home and
Martinez made catch and tag while seated; HP umpire yelled at
Martinez to show him the ball before calling out Thomas.
<< <i>Congrats on the Kershaw! Always love seeing this thread updated. >>
For the last few season Kershaw has been super fan friendly to TTMers if you send during Spring Training or the season you have a shot to have something come back right before the next years Spring Training
there are some nice returns posted over on SCN
Was able to get Ford and Redman IP at a recent Long Island Ducks Game
good luck with the returns
collecting RAW Topps baseball cards 1952 Highs to 1972. looking for collector grade (somewhere between psa 4-7 condition). let me know what you have, I'll take it, I want to finish sets, I must have something you can use for trade.
looking for Topps 71-72 hi's-62-53-54-55-59, I have these sets started
It must have been a real thrill for many of these players to hit their first homers off of eventual HOFers. I counted three that did so off of Sandy Koufax! I didn't tally them up but it felt like to me that Fergie Jenkins and Bert Blyleven (no surprise!) gave up the most first homerun balls among HOF pitchers, and perhaps Jim Perry (among the non-HOFers) was tagged most often. Do you have the actual tallies?
Great project and thanks for continually updating.
<< <i>Amazing project and thread; just read it all the way through.
It must have been a real thrill for many of these players to hit their first homers off of eventual HOFers. I counted three that did so off of Sandy Koufax! I didn't tally them up but it felt like to me that Fergie Jenkins and Bert Blyleven (no surprise!) gave up the most first homerun balls among HOF pitchers, and perhaps Jim Perry (among the non-HOFers) was tagged most often. Do you have the actual tallies?
Great project and thanks for continually updating. >>
Thanks for the kind words -- I have toyed with this for awhile, I wish I added the pitchers and stadiums to my spreadsheet when I started -- since it has been slow I might go back and add them -- will take awhile though.
So this past July I took a super longshot which could have been a TTM Epic Fail but 4 months later I will have to say it was not.
On July 18, 2015 I sent out 51 requests and I had no expectations that I would get any back ~ I was hoping for the best.
My mailing was to all the living Hall of Famers that hit a Homerun that I did not have -- I sent them to the National Baseball Hall of Fame a week before the 2015 Ceremony -- this year they inducted Biggio, Martinez, Johnson and Smoltz.
My thought was that maybe by sending them to the HOF they might have a quite moment during Hall of Fame Weekend to peruse through some of their mail. I wrote a nice letter explaining my collection and how their card would be a great addition to it -- added some first HR stories like the ones within this thread. I included an extra card for them -- purchased some Jimi Hendrix stamps so when the envelopes came back I would know right away what was inside. I was all set hoping for everyone of them to come back.
Its been 4 months since Hall of Fame Weekend and I guess its a good time to recap
19 Days letter an envelope is waiting on my table with a Hendrix stamp -- How Cow -- I sorta quickly open it up and I do see that it is signed
BAM!!!! --- Mike Schmidt
POOF!!! --- looks like the dreaded Ghost Signed Mike Schmidt
Lots of info on this version of his auto and I was a bit disappointed
Next came a bunch of mail sent back directly from the HOF with a stamp that stated will not accept forwarded mail -- all came back on 8-26
Johnny Bench
Carlton Fisk
Bob Gibson
Sandy Koufax
Ozzie Smith
Carl Yastrzemski
These have also been returned but looks like it was forwarded on from the HOF but not accepted by the player at the address it was sent
Andre Dawson
Barry Larkin
Tony Perez
Red Schoendienst
Bob Uecker
Envelopes with the Jimi stamp started to trickle in the --- all the ones below came back with no signatures on the cards but did include a postcard or slips that stated their price lists.
Luis Aparicio
Yogi Berra (a letter was sent that he was unable to sign mail -- he passed away shortly after)
George Brett
Steve Carlton
Orlando Cepeda
Gaylord Perry
Jim Rice
Nolan Ryan
Tom Seaver
Robin Yount
To date I have not received word on the following
Hank Aaron
Roberto Alomar
Craig Biggio
Lou Brock
Rod Carew
Bobby Cox
Dennis Eckersley
Whitey Ford
Tom Glavine
Rickey Henderson
Reggie Jackson
Ferguson Jenkins
Randy Johnson
Greg Maddux
Juan Marichal
Willie Mays
Willie McCovey
Paul Molitor
Eddie Murray
Jim Palmer
Brooks Robinson
Frank Robinson
Ryne Sandberg
Joe Torre
Billy Williams
Dave Winfield
And now to the 3 returns that have made my mailing worth it -- which is 3 more than I though i would receive - I believe that they are real autos but would welcome any thoughts
Joe Morgan -- came back to me on 8-29-2015
Bill Mazeroski -- came back on 10-2-2015
And 2015 inductee John Smoltz -- came back on 10-31-2015
I took a swing -- not a homerun but maybe a single the thrill on receiving anything signed back was worth it!
Congrats!
IMF
Congrats on those three returns. Always nice to look at this thread. Keep it going!
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Been a slow year for the my 1st HR Project -- sent to some very low percent-ers and had some hits -- close to 1500 total returns and hopefully I will get there in 2016 -- here are the additions since my last post
Mr. Joe Torre -- came back on 12-26-2015
Happy to reach the 1500+ return mark and happy to acquire some signatures of guys that hit theirs in the 40's and 50's.
Can you think of a better place for Carl Sheib to hit his first HR than Shibe Park?
Doug
Liquidating my collection for the 3rd and final time. Time for others to enjoy what I have enjoyed over the last several decades. Money could be put to better use.
Always remember, Scotti Madison is just a phone call away!
Been a real loooooong time since I last updated this thread (going on 9 months) -- I try to be better going forward.
Very excited to pick up the Brooks Robinson -- he is in a nice signing wave and I was able to have this signed for $10.00 and a SASE
I don't get back to the boards much these days, but your project is one of my favorite topics and it's great to see the new pulls. I see you got two Venezuelans in the recent batch. Have you had much success TMT to South America? Thanks for sharing and good luck going forward.
Dan Wilson, Mariner great. Just threw out the first pitch with three others yesterday for the home opener. Good guy.
Do you have a response from Brian Downing yet?
Glad to see this is still going. Do you still send the questions along and if so do they answer them?
My Sandberg topps basic set
My Sandberg Topps Master set