TTM Successes
Sam McDowell
McDowell has always been a favorite of ours on TTMCast: Jeff interviewed him on the show back in 2022, I mailed him a few years ago for my 1972 Topps set, and I mentioned him a while back about where his fees go. So when I came across this nice 1969 Topps card that I had forgotten that my friend Chris gave me, I figured I should mail it off. In the meantime, I found a few more cards of him so I may need to send again in 2026.
McDowell signed this card via his Florida home for $5 in three months.
Todd Zeile
Somehow I had never mailed to Todd Zeile until just now. He’s a solid TTM signer, just takes a while sometimes as many recent returns can attest: I’ve seen a few collectors posting ones that took a year and a half to come back. Fortunately, he’s shown a history of signing as long as you’re patient.
He signed these for me in five months via his California home. Word of warning: I sent four and got three back, so he may limit to three per request.
Dick Motta
Motta was the 1971 NBA Coach of the Year, a 1978 NBA Champion, and was known for once throwing a dollar bill onto the court and demanding that it play after a GM traded one of his players for cash considerations.
He retired to Utah where he and his wife opened a bed and breakfast.
Now 94, he signed these for me via his Idaho home in two months. He swapped out a card for the Mavericks business card– certainly a fair trade!
Mark Kiefer
I mailed to the Brewer brothers Mark and Steve Kiefer on the same day– does anyone else do that with brothers or similarly named players to see who comes back faster? The Greg Harris pitchers of the late 80s and early 90s are another good pair to race. Steve got back in a couple weeks while Mark took longer, but both fortunately are reliable signers.
Mark signed these for me via his Texas home in six months.
Lloyd Moseby
Another asterisk, as this was a private signing. Moseby was a solid outfielder for the Blue Jays and Tigers in the 1980s. The 1984 Topps duals I picked up at the National in 2018 at a table with signed cards 12 for $10– including a ton from Dave Stieb, so I bought them out on those. I knew it would just be a matter of time before I could get in on a Moseby signing to finish these two off, as you see here.
The cost for the private signing? 12 bucks.
Broadcasters: Where to mail?
There are very few hard and fast rules for TTM. Aside from making sure to use proper postage, pay the appropriate fees when requested, be reasonable with what you send, and never send anything you can’t afford to lose, the rules and regulations are pretty fluid.
And that makes it hard sometimes to mail to someone like a broadcaster. If you think about it, they all have at least three addresses associated with them: their home, their team, and the flagship radio or TV station. So if you want to write to one, what’s best? Is one generally better than the other?
Well, as Rev. Lovejoy of the Simpsons said, “Short answer, ‘yes’ with an ‘if;’ long answer, ‘no’ with a ‘but.'” Let’s check out the pros on cons of each with a few specific examples in baseball.
Home
The advantage of a home address is you at least know for sure the broadcaster’s mailbox is probably getting checked regularly. With a flagship station or a team, they may not check for a few weeks or months. The disadvantage: plenty don’t want to be bothered there when the other addresses are far more publicly known. From the Orioles, color commentators Jim Palmer and Dave Johnson are both excellent signers via their home addresses, as are Cleveland’s Rick Manning, and Rangers’ Ford Frick Award winner Eric Nadel.
Team
Team addresses are the easiest ones to find for mailing. You just have to hope– much like active players– that the broadcaster checks his mail there regularly. Fortunately many do. Rex Hudler of the Royals seems to be one who prefers mail through the team. Luis Gonzalez occasionally does color commentary for the Diamondbacks and signs via them, and Mark Gubicza is a great signer through the Angels. Darrin Jackson is a reliable signer via the White Sox.
For those who aren’t former players, play-by-play man Rick Rizzs is a great signer via the Mariners, and the newest Ford Frick Award winner, Tom Hamilton, signs through the Guardians.
Flagship station
Personally, I’d feel least comfortable sending here. But it could have its advantages: if you have a broadcaster who hasn’t signed via a home or team address, they might be surprised to receive one at the station and be more likely to sign. The tough part here is that they may not go to the station very often. In my time as an intern at the flagship radio station of the Cleveland Indians, Browns, and Cavs 20 years ago, I can say I never once saw Tom Hamilton, Jim Donovan, or Joe Tait at the studio. But Ron Gant for one is an excellent signer via Fox 5 Atlanta– I’m sure it helps that he’s there every day as a morning show host. And of course, if the team owns the station that makes things easier: Longtime Yankees broadcaster Michael Kay is an excellent signer via the YES Network.
Overall, I’d say stick to mailing to the team as much as possible. But as with everything in this hobby research it first and if they sign via a home address, try it out. And if all else fails, a flagship station Hail Mary might be worth a try.
TTMCast Preview
On this week’s show, Les Wolff joins us and gives a couple appraisals as well as his thoughts on the 2026 National, Arron and Drew wrap up most of the in-person graphing season and we cover all the latest hobby news in this month’s episode of TTMCast.
You can listen to the latest episode here.
If you have any graphing questions, you can reach Drew via email at DFWGrapher@gmail.com
