My Cardboard Life: TTM Requests

I hadn't sent out any through the mail requests in a while, so last August I bought a few books of stamps and went wild. I opened up my binder and grabbed a plethora of cards out that I thought would gain some successes and also typed out some letters (because my handwriting is atrocious). Each player was given a few questions in each letter that were asked by me and my 7-year-old son because he thought it would be cool. Here are the players/cards that I sent out and the date each was sent:

Request Sent: 8/24/2024

1973 Topps Dave Roberts RC
1965 Topps Rick Reichardt/Bill Kelso RC
1972 Topps Chris Chambliss RC

The first return in the bunch was from Rick Reichardt. Rick was nice enough to send his signed card back right away! Sadly, I wasn't able to get the full card signed as Bill Kelso passed away in 2009. Reichardt signed this card, answered my questions and sent it back by 9/3/2024 for a turnaround time of 10 days! Dave Roberts followed a few weeks after that and he signed my card and also answered questions for me. His return arrived on 9/27/2024 for a turnaround time of 34 days! Also, not shabby!

Reichardt's letter

What blew me away with Reichardt's letter was his answer to Question #5, which was: When you were drafted into the NFL, how were you notified? Telephone? I have always wondered about this.

Reichardt replied with: John Unitas called

WOW! Could you even imagine?

Dave Roberts (I bought this card because of the Rookie Cup and also his uni):

Roberts' Letter:

Mr. Roberts says Don Zimmer was his favorite manager to play for and he enjoys a good steak as his favorite pre-game meal!

As for Chris Chambliss, I think it's pretty safe to say I'll never see that card again which is upsetting because it was one of my dad's from when he was a kid. Definitely not cool Chris Chambliss!

After these returns, I did a few more because well, I had the stamps, why not?

So, on 11/16/2024 I was at it again. I dug into my vintage box once again and dug out a few goodies. Most of these cards I sent were rookie cards I purchased a while back at card shows in 50 cent boxes, so I guess I repurposed them into something cool. Let's check the next batch:

1972 Topps Toby Harrah RC

1971 Topps Dick Mills/Mike Garman RC
1973 Topps John Felske RC
1977 Topps Pete Vuckovich RC (Clu Haywood from the movie Major League)

1972 Topps Buzz Capra/Leroy Stanton/Jon Matlack RC
1983 Fleer Ken Smith RC
1971 Topps Steve Dunning RC

Surprisingly, Vuckovich (former Cy Young Award winner and actor) signed first! The crazy part of sending something to Vuckovich is I know exactly where his house is! He lives on a road on the way to my grandparents' house. When I looked at the address I had to do a double take. I thought, "Holy crap! I know that street!" Pretty wild. Vuckovich signed in 8 days but did not answer the questions in my letter. I received his response on 11/24/2024. The next day, I remember talking to my mailman and he asked if I had sent something to Toby Harrah the baseball player and I said, "Yeah. I asked him for an autograph." He laughed and handed me some envelopes and Toby Harrah actually put his return address on the envelope to me. Stupid me tossed it though. Toby signed the card I sent him and also made me laugh with a response to one of the questions I asked him. Super cool guy that Toby Harrah is! His return came 11/25/2024 with a turnaround time of 9 days. A week had gone by, and I hadn't received another letter then out of the blue came another letter on 12/3/2024. This return was from Mike Garman with a turnaround time of 17 days. However, like Vuckovich, Garman did not answer my questions. I'm guessing they didn't read the letter I wrote which sucks. On New Year's Eve, I checked my mailbox and there was 1 letter in there with familiar handwriting. Yep, that's definitely a return. This one came from Jon Matlack. Matlack did sign my card and also answered the questions I had for him. Matlack's turnaround time was 45 days. A little bit after the new year, I did receive my card back from John Felske with a note from his son stating his father had passed away. I have to admit, I felt pretty awful that I sent him something because I always made sure to check the internet to see if any of the players on the vintage cards had passed and I didn't remember seeing anything about Felske passing. So, I checked the internet again and I saw that Felske had passed away on 11/30/2024, which was 2 weeks after I sent the card to him. RIP Mr. John Felske. As for Ken Smith, dude, remember I'm the guy who wanted to play catch with you in my post: Cards that bothered me as a kid I thought we were cool, Ken. To Steve Dunning, c'mon man. I've seen he's hard to get to sign, but I tried. I really wrote him a heartfelt letter too. The card I sent him was one of my dad's, so I was a bit upset.

Pete Vuckovich:

Toby Harrah:

Harrah's Letter:

Harrah didn't care for Ted Williams as a manager as his response to my 1st question: What team did you have the most fun playing on? "Didn't care for Washington also because of Ted Williams." YIKES!

I also asked if Jim Leyland was a nice guy and Harrah's response made me laugh: Smoked too much!

Classic.

Mike Garman: