This Week on TTMCast
Hockey TTM legend Paul Buxton joins us as co-host, former college baseball player and brief professional umpire Andrew Loewe comes in for the Collectors’ Corner segment, and I’m also joined by GemRate’s Ryan Stuczynski.
You can listen to the show here.
TTM Successes
Jose Cruz Jr.
Junior is certainly following in his dad’s footsteps as an excellent TTM signer. These came back in six weeks via Rice University where he is head coach of the Owls’ baseball team.
Dave Poulin
A past winner of both the Selke and Clancy Trophies, Dave was with TSN as a commentator when I mailed him a year ago. He since has moved on to the Ottawa Senators front office, but took his mail with him.
Ken Klee
I mailed to Klee’s Colorado home address just after he left the Avalanche broadcast team to become the head coach of Minnesota’s PWHL franchise. Fortunately, his mail also was forwarded to him and I got these in a couple months.
In-Person Report
I was planning to hit the Corpus Christi Hooks against the Frisco Roughriders this weekend, but my plans were scuttled because of some rehab assignments. The Rangers sent Nathaniel Lowe down for a few games as he returns from an oblique injury. Normally that’s not enough to keep me away, but then Houston countered by sending Justin Verlander down to Corpus Christi for a rehab start in his return from a shoulder issue.
The Roughriders announced they had sold 4000 tickets within 90 minutes of the announcement, 9000 by the end of the previous night’s game, and had a final announced attendance of 11,622. There was no way I was going to battle that crowd when I could all but guarantee neither of them would sign. There also was a planned full-team signing session before the game, but it would be crazy enough with a normal crowd, much less one three times that.
So I took the night off and went instead down to Fort Worth for the Panther City Lacrosse Club’s final game: which included a full-team on-field postgame signing for all season ticket holders. I’ll take the guaranteed sigs without question, and walked out with a 11-7 PCLC victory over Albany, and 22 signed cards.
What’s Your TTM Origin Story?
Often in our TTMCast Collectors Corner interviews, we talk about how we got started in the hobby. I’m always interested in knowing how people started, how they first heard about it, and what some of their earliest successes are.
So I’d like to open the floor to you readers: Tell me about your first TTMs. What year did it happen? How old were you? How did you find addresses and ideas on who to send to early on? What got you hooked?
And this goes for any era of collector: whether your first was Carl Hubbell who debuted in 1928, or some minor league player who might debut in 2028, I’m interested in knowing how you got into it. I know you have a story to tell.
Send your TTM origin story to me at [email protected], or find me on Twitter/X: @DFWGrapher, and I’ll feature several in a future column.
Related Stories:
TTM This Week: Music and Baseball, Haul of Hall of Fame Autographs
TTM This Week: Card Life Talk, Football Autographs in the Mailbox
TTM This Week: The Show Returns; Reliable Football Signers
TTM This Week: The Mailbox Provides and International Mailing Info
TTM This Week: Collector’s Corner; Weekly Returns; One Frank Tanana
TTM This Week: Hall of Famer Rookies and Set Hits, and Caveat Emptor on a World Series MVP
TTM This Week: More Hall of Famer RCs and an Appeal to the NHL
TTM This Week: National Tips; Impressive Card Display; Rick Dempsey Chat; Autograph Returns
