TTMCast Preview
We had the weekend off as we gradually make the transition into a monthly format. Check out the previous week’s episode or dive back into our archives, dating back to the start of the show in 2019. All of these can be found at TTMCast.com.
TTM Successes
Another week of no mail, but with an upcoming three-day weekend I’ll be sending a few more out. Since the mailbox was empty, I’m turning things over to Trevor Varso, a California collector who has had a nice few days of successes posted on Facebook. He said “I have been collecting cards for 38 years now but up until last year never sent a TTM.”
After going 5 for 5 last year, he sent out seven to former Minnesota Twins this year and they started rolling back in this week.
Kent Hrbek
Herbie was repeatedly robbed of the Gold Glove: Jim Kaat, who won 16 of them as a pitcher, said Hrbek was the best fielding first baseman he had ever seen. But nearly every year of his career it was Don Mattingly taking home the hardware.
Fortunately Hrbek is an excellent signer through his Minnesota home, typically responding in under two weeks for $5 per card.
Phil Roof
An excellent defensive catcher, Phil was also the first player ever acquired by the Toronto Blue Jays in a pre-Expansion Draft trade for a player to be named later. He played two months for the Jays before moving into a bullpen catcher and coaching role.
He’s another fast signer– this time for free– via his Kentucky home.
Tom Herr
This longtime Cardinal second-sacker and 1985 All-Star bounced around a bit late in his career, with 86 games as a Twin, 97 as a Met, and 32 as a Giant to his credit. He’s another $5 signer after years of doing it free– but when he’s had over 1300 mailed requests listed on SportsCollectors.net and countless more unlisted, can you blame him? Also, I’m not sure how I feel about that airbrush job.
Others that Trevor mailed out a couple weeks ago include Bernie Allen, Rich Reese, Glenn Borgmann, and Steve Braun, as well as some former Cleveland Indians this week in Mark Lewis, Toby Harrah, Jay Bell, and Rick Manning.
North of the Border
It always irks me a little when a player I need joins a Mexican League team. Not that I have anything against Mexico: the people I’ve known from there are great and their cuisine is my second favorite behind Vietnamese. But unlike the American affiliated minor leagues, I’ve had little to no luck TTMing players there, and I have yet to physically cross an international border to get autographs.
So when the Charros de Jalisco announced they would play a couple preseason exhibition games in Cleburne, TX, I quickly started digging around online to try to find a roster. And fortunately, theirs is nicely loaded.
Just to keep things short, I got 84 cards signed at their game on Tuesday– including former major leaguers Billy Hamilton, Vidal Nuno, Kyle Garlick, Dwight Smith Jr., Onelki Garcia, Stephen Gonsalves, Jake Jewell, Severino Gonzalez, Allen Cordoba, and Johneshwy Fargas. Charros Manager Benji Gil and Cleburne’s manager Pete Incaviglia were both there for a sit-down autograph signing as well.
Also, if you can explain to me how this phrase happened, I’d greatly appreciate it: “That’s the fifth out in the top of the 10th inning, with the home team leading 5-3.” Because somehow the game went into a 10th inning despite the home team Pasta City All-Stars taking home a 9th inning walkoff… and then Jalisco was given six outs in the top of that 10th inning. Maybe a little extra time on the field?
Also, a little fun fact in transition: former Angels prospect Jeremy Rhoades, who is pitching for Jalisco, will only sign the back of his 2014 Bowman cards. Why? Well…
Wrong Photo: Won’t Sign
Back in May 2022, I helped Jeff Baker in assembling a three-part series on cards that players won’t sign. Some were due to contract issues, bad memories, reserving them as gifts for family members, or they just plain don’t like their photo. But for many, the picture on the card isn’t even of them.
Such is the case with Rhoades, whose first pro cards have the wrong player depicted– the same photo is used on his 2014 Bowman and 2014 Prizm cards.
Bowman has been hit hard by this trend over the past decade: Brandon Drury (2016, depicts Jake Lamb), Greg Deichmann (2018, depicts Kevin Merrill), Jackson Merrill (2021, depicts Isaac Frye), Jason Woodward (2023, depicts brother Jackson), and Chandler Welch (2024, depicts Clifton Slagel) all have the wrong photo on a Bowman card.
Drury, Deichmann, and Woodward won’t sign their cards– however Kevin Merrill will sign the one that shows him. Jackson Merrill tries to avoid signing his, but has loosened up on that. Welch had no problem signing his for me.
It’s far from a new problem or a Bowman-only problem. And I can’t even put the blame on the card companies: many times a photo is labeled incorrectly, even from a major source like AP or Getty Images. Cards also go through several layers of checking and approvals, both in-house and from the leagues and associations. Sometimes mistakes just happen.
Andy McGaffigan’s 1990 Upper Deck card shows Rich Thompson– fortunately Andy will sign the back. Chad Mottola’s 1994 Ted Williams card shows catcher Jason Moler– I don’t know that Moler will sign it but Mottola will not. Martin Perez’s 2018 Gypsy Queen shows Nick Martinez: Perez seems to change his policy on this one. I have not seen one with the front signed, but he signed the back of mine, but days later I saw him skip over another who had his flipped over.
This does however give a few chances at a different dual-signed card. In many cases, the player whose card it is will sign the back, while the depicted player will sign the front. Here’s a list of a few of those.
Francisco Cervelli’s 2009 Topps shows Austin Jackson. It has been noted that Jackson will sign front and Cervelli will sign the back.
Jonathan Hernandez notified me at a 2021 event that his card in that season’s Topps Heritage offering is Taylor Guerrieri. Hernandez signed the back for me that day, and several months later, Guerreri signed the front by mail.
Bill Spiers’ 1990 Topps card shows George Canale. Canale has been willing to sign the front, though I do not have any reports on whether Spiers will sign the back or not. I do know one request asking him to sign “Not Bill Spiers” went unfulfilled.
Other sports are not immune to this either. Pacific’s second and third Major Indoor Soccer League sets, released for the 1988-89 and 1989-90 seasons, each had a few wrong player errors. In the former, card #53 of David Doyle shows Duncan MacEwan; card #67 of Mike Sweeney shows Dave MacKenzie; and card #84 of A.J. Lachowecki shows Kris Peat.
The following season, card #34 of Scoop Stanisic shows Scott Manning, and card #67 of Chris Hundelt has his photo, bio, and stats, but with his cousin Kevin’s name; unlike the previous year, these also had corrected versions made. Fortunately, all the players in the 1988-89 set have been willing to dual-sign the cards, as did the Scoop/Scott combo. Unfortunately the Hundelt dual has eluded me.
So if you’re looking for something cool and different to get signed, or if you’re wondering why a player won’t sign a certain item, consider the wrong photo error card. You may not have luck on all of them, but there are enough out there to make them worth a try.
If you have any graphing questions, you can reach Drew via email at DFWGrapher@gmail.com
