I’ve been collecting autographs through-the-mail for over 20 years now, but it was in 2003 that I really got into the hobby. That’s when it became a passion.
I used to run a website called Alex’s Autographs, where I posted my daily successes, which you can still visit—though I haven’t updated it since July 2020. I’m not sure how much longer it will be around, as Webs.com, the host, began to shift all their content to another host and I have a hunch that if I log in, the old content will disappear completely. So, I’ll leave it be, untouched, for now.
It was a fun project, that website. I started it in 2004 and updated it regularly for about 10-15 years, but as I got older, went off to college and started working updates became fewer and farther between. Before I started updating again in March 2020, I had gone about a year-and-a-half between posts. Then I did a lot of work with it for a few months. Then I stopped altogether, again.
Life’s busy, man.
The site used to have all sorts of features. I used to run a monthly contest where folks could win free autographs. I had a featured website, where I would tout fellow collectors’ little corners of the Internet. I had a bunch of lists and pages—players who charged to sign, archives of all my past successes, hints and tips. It developed into quite the helpful resource, if I do say so myself.
I pared it down over the years as it became too unwieldy and too time consuming to update. But at its peak, it was pretty popular, even earning a write up in Tuff Stuff magazine.
Anyway, my passion for collecting autographs hasn’t waned. I still send out hundreds of requests each year. So, why not post a little about the successes I’ve received over the years? I have binders full of autographs and I’ll go through them, one page at a time. That should give me plenty of material.
Let’s start on Page One, of Binder Six. Or maybe Seven. I lose track.
Here we have Michael Tucker, Scott Garrelts and Brian Johnson.
I’ve written to Tucker three times in my day, and he’s responded twice … and they both came back on the same day. The first request I sent was in December 2016. It arrived 1,851 days later—that’s more than five years, for those counting—in mid-January 2022. I sent him another request in September 2019, but he never responded. Then in late December of that year, I sent him a third request, which came back on the same day as the first one. That took 750 days, or a little more than two years. He signed 3/3 and 1/1 cards, respectively.
Tucker is an easily forgotten outfielder, but he clobbered 125 home runs in his career and stole as many as 23 bases in a campaign.
Garrelts is a highly underrated pitcher from the 1980s and early 1990s. He earned an All-Star selection as a reliever in 1985 (74 G, 2.30 ERA, 13 SV, 9.0 K/9), then Cy Young votes as a starter in 1989 (14-5 W-L, league-leading 2.28 ERA). And just like that, he fell off, and was out of the majors after a decade in it.
I sent him an autograph request in November 2021 and received 4/4 cards signed back in mid-January 2022. He signed in 68 days.
Two Brian Johnsons have made the major leagues—one was a catcher mostly for the Padres and Giants in the 1990s and early 2000s. The other was a pitcher for Boston in the mid-to-late 2010s. This Brian Johnson is neither of those—rather, he was a catcher in the Indians chain who spent a couple seasons at Triple-A, 1991 and 1992, but never reached the majors. He was Cleveland’s second round pick in 1988 (Mark Lewis was their #1 pick that year), but never panned out.
I wrote to him twice. I initially tried him in late November 2021, but it came back return to sender—bad address. I found a new one and not a couple weeks later sent to him again. He signed that time in 32 days.
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