TTM Successes
Gene Richards
In 1977 Richards set a modern-day rookie record for stolen bases in a season, swiping 56 bags en route to a third-place finish in Rookie of the Year voting. The record only lasted four seasons before Tim Raines broke it with 71 in 1981. He also held Padres records for career steals, triples, and single-season hits, all of which were eventually surpassed by Tony Gwynn. Despite his speed and a career .290 average, he was out of baseball by 1984, later becoming a minor league coach.
Gene signed these for me in a month via his Nevada home.
Mike Kenn
A 17-year veteran at left tackle for the Falcons, Kenn deserves more of a look for induction into the Hall of Fame. He was a three-time first-team All-Pro, two-time second-team All-Pro, played in five Pro Bowls, and missed only ten non-strike games in his career, starting all 251 games that he played.
Mike signed these in a year and a half via his Georgia home.
Mark Messier
Okay, so this is another TTM with an asterisk. Messier is a tough signer: in my years of in-person hockey graphing in Boston, he was one of the few players I saw multiple times but never got, and many collectors can say the same. He seemed to enjoy toying with graphers more than anything and of course he never signed by mail.
But now in retirement, he has a deal with CollectibleXchange to do a few signings a year. So I mailed in to them and got it back. It’s the most I’ve ever paid for an autograph, but it gets my 2002-03 Topps Total set to 438 out of 440. Still missing Jason Allison and Paul Kariya…
The turnaround time was three months and the cost was $150.
Address Sources
Often my predecessor on this column, Jeff Baker, mentioned where to get addresses for mailing out your TTMs. I haven’t typically mentioned it because most serious TTMers know the main ones and may even have their own.
But for those just starting out in the hobby, it can seem daunting to figure out where to look. So I’m going to give a crash course in where to find it all the easiest.
Jack Smalling’s Books
From 1980 to 2021, Jack Smalling put out 21 volumes of The Baseball Address List. The earliest volumes predate my entry into the hobby but it was to the hobby what Plato’s Republic was to western civilization. He hasn’t made any updates since 2021, but one can hope that maybe he’ll emerge from retirement…
Harvey Meiselman
Harvey runs Sports Address Lists— which isn’t just what the site name says. Sure, he has address lists for sale for baseball, football, basketball, and hockey, but also a minor league baseball list, and one called “Men and Women of Distinction” that includes auto racing, Olympians, and many non-sports figures such as Nobel Prize winners, astronauts, cartoonists, and authors.
Sports Card Forum
SCF is mostly– as the name implies– a forum for sports card talk. However they have an excellent TTM address database across seven specific sports, plus “other” sports and non-sports sections. Be careful though: sometimes the most recently successful address for a player is at the bottom of the page. Overall though, the price is right: it’s free to join.
SportsCollectors.Net
For me, SCN is the gold standard. Although it costs $15 a year to use, all it has to do is save you from sending out 20 a year to bad addresses or non-signers to make it worthwhile. In addition to addresses, success rates, and fee info, it has notes on players’ signing habits, everyone who has played for each team in the four major leagues, set checklists, lists of mail-in signings, and much more. If you’re not on here, you’re missing out.
Knuckleball
A newly-developed site for sports addresses, Knuckleball condenses the info on SCN and SCF down to the nitty-gritty: who signs, how long, and where? It’s still in its early stages, but I love the potential it has.
White Pages
When all else fails, let your fingers do the walking. The good thing is that the phone book is no longer just a regional book, but a nationwide searchable website. You’ll need some knowledge and to do some digging, but if you plan to use this as a main source, it might be smart to pay for their premium services to see all the past places a person lived and their associates– after all, many athletes tend to move around during their careers. That way you can help make sure you’re finding Joe Smith the basketball player, not Joe Smith the plumber.
TTMCast Preview
A two-hour “What I Did On My Summer Vacation” episode of TTMCast is out. Arron is back in the co-host’s seat after a few weeks in the southeast, Drew visits Ohio, and Clemente Lisi talks about the National, Fanatics Fest, and the never ending soccer season. And now that minor league schedules are out, a preview of where Drew and Arron will be headed on their 2026 road trip to and from the National. Plus, all of our usual segments and TTM successes.
You can listen to this month’s show here.
Coming up in October: Les Wolff provides listener appraisals!
If you have any graphing questions, you can reach Drew via email at DFWGrapher@gmail.com
