April 12, 2011

I figured today is as good a time as any to give an update on the progress of my epic quest.  I have sent out a total of 428 cards.  I have sent out (or will finish in the next few days) all the cards I have for the Phillies, Twins, Royals, Blue Jays, Yankees and Brewers.  The reason for the Yankees and the Blue Jays is because my friends who root for those teams were the inspiration for the project and the other teams because they, for whatever reason, give me the best response rate.  I have a distant, hazy and somewhat unlikely goal of creating a starting roster for at least one team, which means having a Manager, C, 1-3B, SS 3OF and one Pitcher.  It will take some luck but I hope I can pull it off.

I quickly came to the realization that I won't be able to send out all 792 cards.  For one thing, some players have died, at least 17 by my current count.  There are also some cards in the deck that are somewhat odd.  They're called Index Cards and they literally list off every player in the deck, about 150 to a card.  Also there are players who charge for their autographs.  I may chose to explore that option at another time, but for the time being, I'm setting those aside.  Finally there are those rare players for whom I have no contact information at all, or their contact information is somewhat impractical (for example they are coaching in Japan, or South Korea).  These too I set aside.  These last two categories include maybe 30 cards so far, at that number will grow, but not too much.

The reason I am giving this update now is because, for the next month or so, I will be specifically working on another category of cards, "hard."  These are players for whom it is difficult to get an autograph.  They're stars, or members of the hall-of-fame, or just don't like signing.  I fully expect my response rate to drop, probably not right away, but I certainly expect the steady increase I've seen over the past several months to stop and perhaps reverse.  I'm still sending out three cards a day, but I suspect many of the ones I'm going to send out in the next 20-30 days I won't get back.  That's okay though.  The ones I do should be worth it. I'll give it the old college try.

Now, onto more cards!

Rick Cerone (C) - April, 12, 2011 - Response time: 6 days

Teams: Indians, Blue Jays, Yankees, Braves, Brewers, Yankees, Red Sox, Yankees, Mets, Expos

Mr. Cerone was the Yankee's replacement for Thurman Munson.  He had three different stints with the team over a 17 year career.  I thank him very much for signing and would like to say hi to Mark and Evan.


Mark Ciardi (P) - April, 12, 2011 - Response time: 6 days

Teams: Brewers

Mr. Ciardi has had an interesting career after baseball.  He moved onto Hollywood and has become an actor and producer (surprisingly, to me, he has never played Vanilla Ice in any of his films).  While his major league career lasted 18 days, he has produced and/or acted in moves such as The Rookie, Miracle, Invincible, Me, Myself & Irene and Fevor Pitch.  I thank him very much for signing.

Greg Gross (OF) - April 12, 2011 - Response time - 167 days

Teams: Astros, Cubs, Phillies, Astros

Mr. Gross sets a new record for the longest response time, beating out this past weekends winner by another four days.  He is the current hitting coach for the Phillies. He also the all-time team leader in pinch hits and won the World Series with them in 1980.  I thank him very much for signing and once again I'd like to say hi to Rosemary, Kristen and and Mrs. K.


Charlie O'Brien (C) - April 12, 2011 - Response time: 25 days

Teams: A's, Brewers, Mets, Braves, Blue Jays, White Sox, Angels, Expos

Mr. O'Brien was Greg Maddux's personal catcher during the second half of the latters back-to-back-to-back-to-back Cy Young seasons in 1992-1995.  He is also the creator of the modern hockey style catchers mask.  I thank him for signing.

Cards sent: 428

Responses: 112
Response Rate: 26.17%
Average Response time: 42.03 days