TTM Strategy Session: Don’t Forget About the Coaches

Bill March 14, 2018 0 Comments

I wish I thought of this earlier in the year so you could take advantage of Spring Training, but we still have the whole season left to send out some TTMs. If you have the cards to do it, you shouldn’t forget that the coaches can sign for a through-the-mail autograph success too. Not all of them are former players, but there are plenty of cards that will work for them to sign.

I’m going to take a look at who signs (just examples, there a PLENTY that do), how reliable they are, and where I look to gather addresses and information. Maybe we can even find some other places to find former players or other folks for TTM success too.

Who Should I Send To?

Always the number one question right?

As with any TTMs, it helps to start with the guys who you know have a better record in signing. You might as well give yourself the best chance possible if your going to send. But there’s some folks who are harder to resist trying than others. Don’t ever stop yourself from sending to someone because it’s always worth a shot. You just can’t always get your hopes up too high.

Keep in mind, this is by no means a definitive list. These are just some of the guys that I’ve sent to before (most of them pretty recently). A lot of the most reliable guys I’ve sent to multiple times with good results.

The Most Reliable

Juan Samuel, Bud Black, Roger McDowell, Curt Young, Tom Foley, and Lance Parrish all make my reliable list. Not pictured above (you’ll see them below), but also super reliable are Buck Showalter and Ned Yost. Many of them will sign whatever you send them and I haven’t found they have a limit. The only that definitely do are Bud Black and maybe Roger McDowell. Bud has never signed more than two-at-a-time for me in the past.

The other thing to keep in mind is not to get frustrated when you don’t get them right away. Roger McDowell is a great example of that. From what I’ve seen in recent years, he signs after the season from his home. You could’ve sent in Spring Training but he saves them up. That’s my experience anyway.

Reliable, But Not As Tested

Torey Lovullo, Ted (or Ned as he seems to write) Power, Derek Lilliquist, Mike Harkey, Glenn Hubbard, Chili Davis, Greg Gross are all somewhat reliable. The reasons I listed them as less so than the first group is either because I haven’t tried them several times or I have an they are a little more hit or miss. Bruce Bochy is another to add to this list. In my experience sending to Bruce, he either limits the cards he signs (I think he signs two these days) or I haven’t gotten back the cards.

Worth A Flyer

These are definitely two that I wouldn’t count on getting back, but somehow I did. Don Mattingly signed when he was with the Dodgers and Paul Molitor I got sever years ago at this point, but still through the team. These are great examples of time when you should try to send to someone because you just might get it back.

Other Sources for Success

Another great place you can look are the front offices and the broadcast booth. The front office guys are easy because you can send to the team. The broadcasters can be a different story. I try to look up who works as a studio analyst for the team and who does the play-by-play at the game. If they are at the stadium I’ll send there. Don’t be afraid to do the research and look up who does what and where they work from. Jose Guzman, for instance, is part of the Spanish broadcast for the Texas Rangers.

Front Offices

Broadcasters

How Do I Know Where To Send?

So this is easy right? Well, yes… and no. In the case of MLB teams it’s really easy. Just go to their site and to find out who is on the coaching staff or front office staff, then send to the stadium.

For the minor league managers and coaches I always start with the Minor League Baseball site. I start with the Teams & Leagues page and just use that as my source to get to every team. You can generally click on the team, then there’s always a Roster link you can mouse-over. If you click on Roster it will usually list the coaches at the top but sometimes there’s also a coaching staff link.

But there are more minor leagues teams than that. There’s also independent league baseball. The most famous, well maybe not the most famous but I think they are one of the best sources, are the Long Island Ducks. They usually have some former major leaguers on the team (John Lannan and David Aardsma were there last year) and Bud Harrelson has been involved with them forever. But that’s just one team, there are plenty more. I use the Wikipedia site to find out some information first. From there you can usually find sites for each league. The problem with these teams is that sometimes they go under. Last year I didn’t pay close enough attention when trying to send to Pete Incaviglia (who signed for me before) and the team he coached for didn’t exist anymore.

For the others you have to do more research. I Google things like “MLB Team  Broadcasters” or “Local Baseball Broadcasters”. From there you just really have to be careful about who is active and not. Sometimes you just have to consider the source page you’re looking at.

What Should I Send?

If they are a former player that’s an easy one. A lot of coaches these days are from the junk wax era so that means there’s plenty of cards for you to send. Given that I only send my doubles (…or triples, or whatever) out I always have plenty available. I don’t even mind getting a duplicate TTM as it ends up being something I can trade later. These days there are some more manager cards around too so you can always send those.

But if you don’t their player card, or they weren’t a player, use a team card. There are two different kinds of team cards that could work. The first is any team card you can find in something like Topps flagship base product. They are usually pretty busy in their subject matter, so it makes it hard for an autograph to stick out, but beggars can’t be choosy. The second kid are sometimes those “combo” cards. Of course they would have to be guys on the same team.

Another great thing to send to a manager are some of the World Series cards from things like Topps Heritage. I’ve done that for Bruce Bochy before. Sometimes he’s sent them back unsigned, but I think that was more of the fact that he might only sign two cards these days.

If you want a little more quirky item to sign the junk wax era has those for you to. Remember the old Fleer team logo stickers? Or do you remember the old Upper Deck hologram team logo stickers? That can be a fun item to have a autograph on.

Get Those TTMs Out

So there you have it. The clubhouse, front office and broadcast booth can also be great places to find people to send TTMs to. It doesn’t matter if they played in the majors and have cards or not. You can still find plenty of cards for them to sign and keep your collection growing.

Now, in the time it took to put together and write this post I must have had the song below go through my head a billions times. It’s your turn to have it stuck in your head.

So please, don’t you forget about the coaches people!