Autograph request through the mail received: Danny Tartabull

Danny Tartabull c/o home address - signed my cards in black Sharpie and kept one [1989 Sportsflics] in about a week.

Tartabull was never quite a 'superstar' for the teams he played for but was quite a productive player in his prime years - I haven't really been keeping up with mailing any autograph requests to players since the beginning of the year, but seeing recent Tartabull successes posted on message boards / forums / Web sites piqued my interest.

Autograph request through the mail received: Jimmy Key

Jimmy Key c/o home address - signed one card in blue Sharpie and returned the other card I enclosed in my request unsigned.

I sent my autograph request to Key late in December 2010 and got it back earlier this week - looking at his stats, he had a long Major League career, though my perception was he was strictly a finesse guy who relied more on guile instead of pure stuff coming out of his left hand.

Autograph request through the mail received: Bill Swift

Bill Swift c/o home address - signed several cards in a 'weird' colored Sharpie and kept three for himself.

Swift had a serviceable Major League career, though he wasn't the most durable pitcher - he enjoyed his best season in 1993 when he won 21 games and pitched in a career high 232 innings, teaming up win 22 game winner John Burkett to give the Giants a one-two punch at the top of their rotation.

I sent my autograph request to Swift late in December 2010 and got it back earlier this week - the card I needed signed for my set was from a 2004 Upper Deck USA 25th Anniversary boxed set.

Autograph request through the mail received: Roberto Alomar

Roberto Alomar c/o home address - signed one card in blue Sharpie and didn't return the other [2004 Topps Cracker Jack].

Alomar was considered one of the best second baseman in Major League Baseball history - a defensive wunderkind and an explosive top-of-the-lineup catalyst through his prime, he helped the Toronto Blue Jays win back to back championships in 1992 and 1993.

I received this request on Dec. 21 after a two or three week wait - this knocks out another 2001 Fleer Tradition autograph card and I've been working on trying to get cards from the set signed for about the last seven years.

Alomar was one of the guys who I have missed and just never got in-person when he was an active player - though I do remember another through the mail request sent and received back in the late 1990s, when he was still with the Baltimore Orioles.

Autograph request through the mail received: Jair Jurrjens

Jair Jurrjens c/o Atlanta Braves - signed one card in black Sharpie.

Jurrjens has had a couple of nice seasons in Atlanta - though his relative youth and talent may make him trade bait, since the Braves are looking at six-man starting pitching rotation at the beginning of spring training, with Derek Lowe, Javier Vazquez, Tommy Hanson, Jurrjens, Kenshin Kawakami and Tim Hudson.

I sent this request on July 10, 2009 and received it Nov. 27 - I'd pretty much stopped sending autograph requests through the mail, so getting back a random request I'd sent was a nice surprise.

Autograph request through the mail received: Kendry Morales

Kendry Morales c/o Los Angeles Angeles - signed two cards in black Sharpie in about two weeks.

Morales doesn't glare, doesn't growl or yell when you approach him for an autograph in-person - I've tried to get his autograph in-person just a couple of times and he just looks past you like you weren't there.

Maybe he is more accomodating in organized events - but it is hard to get his attention in-person. I'm sure he is the dude wearing the sunglasses.

Several months ago, I saw this post on another collector's blog - and decided to send a request to Morales, skeptical he would actually respond to an autograph request in the mail.

Fortunately, the cards got back to me safely and both of them were signed - they look pretty good and Morales is just having a breakout season for the Halos in 2009.

Autograph request through the mail received: Brian Matusz

Brian Matusz c/o Bowie Baysox - signed one card in blue Sharpie.

Matusz is considered the crown jewel among Baltimore Orioles' pitching prospects and is likely going to be called up - to make his Major League debut on Tuesday.

I was having a cow looking for his 2008 Tristar Prospects Plus card I pulled from this blaster break last year - I found the card in one binder containing several pages of insert cards. The card was with a random Upper Deck USA autograph insert of Matusz I picked up last year.

I sent an autograph request to him and it took about two weeks to get back to me - ironically the Tristar Projections card I sent was replaced with a card from one of Matusz' earlier minor league stops.

I guess that is fine, since Matusz was wearing dark uniform sleeves on the image used for his Tristar Prospects Plus card - and there didn't seem to be much of a light area to sign an autograph on the card.

Autograph request through the mail received: Pete Rose

Pete Rose c/o Field of Dreams - I received the cards I sent to Rose signed in blue ballpoint pen after two weeks c/o the place he makes appearances at in Las Vegas.

I wish he'd used a Sharpie - the autographs are tiny and the autograph on the 2008 Donruss Threads card is sort of smeared a little.

It is a great success in my book - provided Rose signed the cards himself. It seems weird altogether, that a guy who almost always charges to sign autographs at organized signing events, would respond to requests to sign through the mail.

Autograph request through the mail received: Bill Schroeder

Bill Schroeder c/o Milwaukee Brewers - Schroeder signed three of my cards in black Sharpie. The ink from autographs on the other cards stained the back of two cards, but there was one 'clean card,' from front and back. I mailed my request in mid April 2009 and got my cards back in about two weeks or so.

Schroeder was a back-up catcher for the Brewers in the mid 1980s - and the California Angels just a few years at the start of the 1990s. I think he backed up starting catcher Lance Parrish.

Schroeder is another retied former Angel autograph to add for my Angels project - Andy Hassler, Bo Jackson [on a golf tournament pairing book/program], Jerry Reuss, Schroeder and Bob McClure [a recent in-person success].

I'm sure I've got some autographs of guys I haven't bothered to 'count' just yet i.e. Matt Palmer [2009 rookie, who I got this past spring training] and Rafael Rodriguez [2009 rookie, who I got in spring training the year before this one] - a lot of fun is discovering you already have autographs of Angels players who are rookies or players who end up becoming Angels through various transactions.

Autograph request through the mail received: Juan Gonzalez

Juan Gonzalez c/o home - I was surprised 'Juan Gone' was responding to autograph requests sent to him. I scurried to find what I assumed was the working address online and sent a small package to him, with a blue Sharpie [it may have been the second time I've ever sent a Sharpie out with an autograph request, though I'm pretty sure I've sent some ballpoint pens out]. It may have taken a week before I actually sent my request out and in another two weeks, before I got my self-addressed stamped envelope back with my cards signed [on Wednesday], including a 2004 Topps Cracker Jack 'set card.'

At his healthiest during the mid to late 1990s, Gonzalez was an RBI machine - all the ribbies he got may have been the result of guys hitting infront of him and getting on-base, but there is no denying the man could rake.

I remember being so excited to get his and Ivan Rodriguez's autograph on cards 10 years ago after getting into a baseball stadium before the gates were scheduled to open - Gonzalez actually was a pretty good signer if you saw him and I think even have a picture with him.

Of course things went sort of downhill for Gonzalez when he turned down something like $140 million over 10 years from the Detroit Tigers in 2000 - he had a great season with the Cleveland Indians in 2001, but various bumps and bruises presumably ended his Major League career a few years later [he tried to make a comeback with the St. Louis Cardinals in the spring of 2008, but pulled up lame].

Gonzalez is probably a borderline Hall of Famer but possible red flags in his prolific Major League Baseball career [during the Steroids Era] - include being associated with noted [or infamous] Dominican Republic trainer Angel Presinal and also with good ole' Jose Canseco who implicates Gonzalez [among other prominent, early 1990s Texas Rangers' players] of PED use in Canseco's first book [Juiced].

Autograph request through the mail received: Nate Schierholtz

Nate Schierholtz c/o San Francisco Giants - I mailed this request [consisting of two cards] out near the beginning of the 2009 season and received it back in May. Schierholtz signed two cards in blue ink. Though he was never listed as the top prospect in the Giants' system by Baseball America, I think Schierholtz was considered the organization's best position player coming up through the minor leagues for several seasons.

With the ability he has shown and his age - he probably needs the opportunity to play everyday as opposed to getting random at-bats and/or random starts here and there.

Autograph request through the mail received: Casey Weathers

Casey Weathers c/o Phoenix Desert Dogs [Arizona Fall League] - the No. 8 overall pick in the 2007 Amateur Draft personalized and signed one card in blue Sharpie.

I was glad to get this back - since I'd read [on the Freedom Cardboard message boards]someone had received a recent success from him.

I thought it was ironic a few days after I mail my request on 10/10/08 - he gets injured and eventually needs Tommy John Surgery.

Received 4/28/09 postmarked from Sacramento - I think a postmark on a self addressed stamped envelope [SASE] tells a lot of things i.e. where the mail was sent. Often times you get postmarks from the players hometown [or close to it], from the cities they've travelled to as players, et al.

Autograph request through the mail received: Nomar Garciaparra

Nomar Garciaparra c/o Oakland Athletics [spring training] - personalized and signed one card in black Sharpie.

I assume Garciaparra was one of those players who didn't sign through the mail once he reached the Major Leagues - since he was essentially a star from the beginning of his Major League Baseball career and was inundated with 'fan mail.'

Maybe I wrote to him 10-12 years ago, but that possible request is long gone - if it was ever made. I remember getting him in-person during opening night for the Anaheim Angels in 1997, where he signed a baseball for me and my brother. I got him several years later in 2000, but Garciaparra started to sign less and didn't seem to be as accomodating.

In 2008, I got Nomar in-person for the first time since 2000 - but I lost my autograph book with my Garciaparra set card signed. I was bummed out about that one, since the book also contained my Josh Hamilton [1999 Bowman Chrome] cards I'd expected to get signed.

In 2009, I'm glad Garciaparra signed with a West Coast team - you figure he should be a little mellowed out and it won't be as difficult to get in-person, especially considering the number of times I maybe able to see him.

I saw a recent Garciaparra success posted on this autograph forum I am a member of - found a random 2008 Upper Deck card [I'd 'relocated' my Garciaparra cards from sheets in a binder to a box] and sent a request ASAP.

This request was mailed out on 3/21 and was received 3/28/09 - it was rather quick. I didn't care if it was personalized or in black Sharpie, but then I didn't send one of my set cards and the signed card I received looks pretty good to me.

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In other autograph related matters

From this post, I received baseball uber prospect Matt Wieters, who signed an 8x10 photo for me - too bad the autograph had smudged to the point where sending to him had become a waste of time. I had to take an eraser in order to rub the autograph off the 8x10, which is still in decent shape.

Since that last post, I also sent a few more spring training requests - which likely finishes the spring for me as far as requests go, though maybe I'll send a request or two to minor leaguers.

Justin Masterson c/o Boston Red Sox 3/21/09
Nomar Garciaparra c/o Oakland Athletics 3/21/09
Pat Burrell c/o Tampa Bay Rays 3/21/09
Madison Bumgarner c/o San Francisco Giants [minors] 3/26/09
Travis Fryman c/o Cleveland Indians [complex] 3/26/09
Trevor Hoffman c/o Milwaukee Brewers 3/26/09
Ubaldo Jimenez c/o Colorado Rockies 3/26/09
Daisuke Matsuzaka c/o Boston Red Sox 3/26/09
C.C. Sabathia c/o New York Yankees 3/26/09

Autograph request through the mail received: Joey Votto

Joey Votto c/o Cincinnati Reds [spring training] - signed one card in blue Sharpie and kept the other [2008 Topps Updates and Highlights three home run highlight card]. The well has been dry, so it was nice to see any autograph success received in the mail.

This request was mailed out on 2/17 and was received 3/20/09 - from this post, I'm still waiting on Joba Chamberlain, Austin Jackson, Shawn Johnson and Kenshin Kawakami.

I did send out another batch of spring training requests - hopefully I've crossed all the t's and dotted the i's.

Lars Anderson c/o Boston Red Sox
Adam Jones c/o Baltimore Orioles
Masahide Kobayashi c/o Cleveland Indians
Mat Latos c/o San Diego Padres
Fred Lewis c/o San Francisco Giants
Gary Matthews Jr. c/o Los Angeles Angels
Alexei Ramirez c/o Chicago White Sox
Matt Wieters c/o Baltimore Orioles

Autograph requests through the mail received

Koji Uehara c/o Baltimore Orioles [spring training] - signed one card in black Sharpie.

Andrew Cashner c/o Chicago Cubs [spring training] - signed two cards in black Sharpie.

Cat Osterman c/o DePaul Softball - the softball star signed an 8x10 in black Sharpie. I didn't realize how dark the image was and the autograph shows up better in the scan.

Each autograph success took about two weeks - I haven't mailed out as many through the mail autograph requests [particularly spring training] and from this post, I'm still waiting on Joba Chamberlain, Austin Jackson, Shawn Johnson, Kenshin Kawakami and Joey Votto [presumably back from the WBC].