Bryn Smith and Chris Speier Respond to TTM Requests

Former Major League Baseball players Chris Speier and Bryn Smith are the latest players to respond to my autograph request through the mail.

Speier, who began his career in 1971 with the San Francisco Giants, went on to play for the Montreal Expos, St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins, Chicago Cubs before retiring with the Giants in 1989. Currently he is a bench coach for the Cincinnati Reds.

Smith began his career with the Expos in 1981, went to the Cardinals in 1990 and finished up with the Rockies in 1993.

Currently he is one of the founding members of the Santa Maria Valley Packers, a local collegiate baseball team.

I mailed both requests on Sept. 29.

Speier's request went to the Reds address and Smith's request was sent to his home address in California.

The Reds were eliminated from the playoffs on Oct. 10 and my autograph was postmarked on Oct. 12.

Speier is my fifth through the mail (TTM) autograph success since I decided to give the hobby a try in September.

Smith's reply is postmarked Oct.14 and his my sixth TTM success.

Others that have responded are: Mike Sweeney, view it here Bill Swift, Vance Law, and Kevin Gross. view here

Those that I have attempted to make contact with include: Livan Hernandez, Latroy Hawkins, Tony Pena, Omar Vizquel, Tim Wakefield, Steve Cox, Scott Sanderson, Tommy John, Steve Garvey, Ron Gant, Pete Incavigla, Rich Gedman, Bryan Harvey, Tommy Lasorda, Bob Horner, Ray Fontenot, Jason Thompson, Ed Hearn, Leon Durham, Franklin Stubbs, Larry McWilliams, Andy Hawkins, Dave Winfield, Jay Tibbs, Mike Scioscia, Ken Howell, and Eric Davis.

Craig Paquette and Jody Davis have been my only confirmed failures so far.

The hobby is simple to try.

Simply pick a player, find an address, send a card or photo along with a self addressed stamped envelope and then wait.

The hardest part of the equation is locating an address for the players.

If the player is active, the autograph seeker can send the request in care of the player's team.

Any team address can be located on the Internet.

If the player is retired, the task can be a little more difficult.

Harvey Meiselman's address list seems to be highly recommended.

So far I have been using www.fanmail.biz as my source of addresses.

The site features team addresses and posts from users stating autograph successes or failures.

The users usually post the date they mailed their requests and the address they sent it to.

By using this site, you can access a list of addresses without purchasing a list, get an idea if your favorite player will respond, and learn tips as to how to go about making a request.

So I recommend helping out the U.S. Postal Service by purchasing some stamps, send some of those duplicate baseball cards stored in the attic and then wait for the success.