TTM Success: Fred Beene

 This Orioles Crown return was a quick one from former Orioles pitcher Fred Beene.  He also pitched for the Yankees and Indians during his career. He had a respectable 3.63 ERA mostly as a bullpen arm, but seemed to walk too many batters.  I'm mainly focusing on Orioles autographs so I only sent this one card.  He shared his rookie card with another former Orioles star, Terry Crowley. I tend to shy away from getting duo and triple player cards signed through the mail so I decided against sending it to him.  

A fun fact about Fred Beene is that after his playing days were over, he was a Brewers scout for 20 years. On of his most notable signings was Jim Morris when he was originally drafted.  If you remember Jim Morris's story was the subject of the baseball movie, "The Rookie".  Jim Morris had several arm issues, retired and then made his MLB debut 16 years after originally being drafted.

This was one of my first couple of requests that I sent out with an index card question: 

I love that he name dropped Thurman Munson in his response. I appreciate his time to write a well thought out response.

I sent my card and index card question on November 10th 2023 and got them back on November 20th 2023 for a 10 day TAT.  Thank You Mr. Beene!

TTM Success: Paul Gilliford

 This success came back to me a few days before Thanksgiving.  The TTMs have really been rolling in since I started putting real effort into mailing Orioles cards out to the gentlemen that played for them.  This return from Paul Gilliford was the first time I tried a little something different. He never had an official card released to the masses so my options were limited in selecting something to send.  Once again, I'm saved by the cursed blessing, 1991 Crown/Coke Orioles SGA set.  I'm thankful for this set of cards because I have a chance to connect with a handful of nearly forgotten Orioles.  While I was writing my letter of request to Mr. Gilliford, I read that he attended and played baseball at Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Virginia.  Randy Mac as its known around the area, is about a 35 to 40 minute drive up I-95 from where I live.  Its a very small college that is not well known for its sports endeavors.  

I had a bright idea that day to send a question on an index card in an effort to interact a bit more with him.  Since that day I've included an index card question to each of the players I've sent autograph requests to.  

A bit of a look into the future from this request, the results have  made me smile and chuckle a bit at some of the responses.  Hopefully, the readers of this blog will enjoy the responses as much as I have.  Don't get me wrong, I still love the autographs I've gotten!

Here's my first (of many) index card questions: 

I sent out my card and question on November 10th 2023, and got both back on November 20th 2023, for a speedy 10 day TAT.  Thank you Mr. Gilliford!