Pinch Me if I'm Dreaming! Pitchers and Catchers?

Hey guys, Drew back here. It's been a long winter. Real long. My school district has suffered 7 snow days, and currently seeing a patch of grass up here in New York is almost as rare as finding a Colorado Rockies fan! So, here I am, after a long day of sitting home in pajamas doing absolutely nothing, holding my hot chocolate, as I flip on to the MLB Network. A commercial comes on. All you see is the hot sun, wonderful weather, and BASEBALL! That warms me up so much on the inside, so much that not even hot chocolate can compare to.

I have never in my life been more excited for Spring Training. The crack of the bat sounds so much nicer to me than the blow of a gun and runners taking off. That pop in the glove of a fielder sounds soothing compared to the frantic screaming and panic that goes on while you are running full speed to win the race! Baseball seems right for me, and I've never wanted it as bad as I do right now. I think one reason is because first of all, I'm pretty sick of track, as you can tell, and second, I can hardly see above the huge mounds of snow right now and it's really beginning to be a menace!

But the one thing that is pumping me up for Spring Training most, is my through the mail autograph requests! I have been chomping at the bit lately, writing letter after letter, making custom after custom, in hopes that I receive at least 40-50% of them back. I have plans on about 30 letters going out, call me crazy, but about 15 have already made their way to Florida and Arizona! Some of the players on my list are going to be much harder to obtain then others, but I'm confident that after all the hard work I've put in that I'm going to be rewarded with some nice new signatures for my collection.

Among my list are Rays ace David Price; Yankees centerfielder Curtis Granderson; Rays outfielder Johnny Damon; Rangers closer Neftali Feliz; Padres closer Heath Bell; Cardinals Manager Tony LaRussa; new Dodgers manager Don Mattingly; and many, many more!

The reason that I prefer Spring Training over any other time of the season to send out autographs is that from most players point of view, it's their least busiest time of the year. Sure, they're working their butts off in preparation for the big year, but they have a lot of free time on their hands to read some letters, especially the younger guys. A lot of players that you see signing in Spring Training do not sign at other points of the year (see Clayton Kershaw, CC Sabathia). This is the one time of year where you could send to almost anyone (minus the Jeter's and Pujols') and you would have a much better opportunity at a success.

So, I highly recommend Spring Training if you're going to test your luck and write a few letters! Last year I didn't overdo it too much, but did receive all the letters I wrote, from Pat Neshek, Ian Snell, Andrew Bailey, CC Sabathia (yes, I got them 2 weeks ago) and even Buster Posey (don't get your hopes up this year)! A good time to send your letters are within the next two weeks in my opinion, because if you send too late you may not be lucky enough. If you want to save your stamps, and you're not sure if the player typically signs, put his name in the comments and I'll let you know what I've seen from him in the past.

Anyway, pitchers and catchers in 4 days! I'm almost as excited as a teenage girl going to a Justin Bieber concert (oh jeez, never thought I'd mention his disgraceful name on this blog).

Lets Go Yankees! See Ya!

P.S. I posted a log on my sidebar of the players officially sent out to, what date, and I'll post if there is any success in the future!

drewscustomcards Gallery: Hall of Fame Heroes

    

What do you think of the set?

Even more of a custom card update

Hey guys, Drew back here, I went to a party today (somehow, we have about 2 feet of snow over here), and it was pretty fun. I made one more custom before I left, for a TTM I'm gonna send really soon, maybe next week sometime, to this guy:

After emailing William from foul bunt, I made a decision. I will only put the fronts on the cards when they are mailed, and if I get back the back of the card will be added. The back makes it sound like it will be for sale or something, and I don't want to make it seem like the player is signing for a company. Hopefully this makes for better success! So, I'm gonna make 1 or 2 more tomorrow, than I'll print a few more! See Ya!

Bob Feller Custom Finished!

Hey guys, as Spring Training is here, I am piled in snow. On my driveway we must have at least 8-11 inches of snow, and we've had no school for 3 straight days! Since we don't get winter recess here in NY, this is a nice treat! Anyway, I've spent a lot of the time in the snow or working on customs. I'm preparing many trades and TTM's to ship out, getting pretty close to the first 330 2010 Topps cards, I think I still need about 30 though. I got a lot of doubles in the box from my blaster. Anyway, on the post below this (or on the sidebar), the cards not in red are still available for trade, and I made my wantlists a lot neater, so check that out for a really easy way to see what I need. My 2010 Topps wantlist looks like a checkers game, you'll see when you're looking for cards I need! Anyway, I wanted to show you all how the custom Hall of Fame Heroes cards are coming out, I'm gonna start sending them as soon as I'm done! I started printing them yesterday, so first check out the cards, the fronts are printed but the backs aren't yet:

Bob Feller


Andre Dawson


Stan Musial


Side View of Stan Musial

I used plain white dummy cards to make it thick, I have a bunch of them, and they look great! I used double sided tape (mom helped me with this card making experience, thanks again mom!), and stuck the card to the dummy. Two of the cards are not perfect, but the Musial came out perfect!

Backs

The Plain white back, soon to be covered in pictures like this:

Musial Back


Feller Back

My signature will be in between the "Congratulations" paragraph and my name, like Richard P. McWilliam, or whatever the heck his name is. By the way, I'm sending in the Dye "no relic" card for a replacement, Upper Deck finally got back to me.

Any advice is needed! I'm gonna make a few more now, starting with the Dawson back though! See Ya!

P.S. If you request one, I'll do my best to try to make one for you, if not you can feel free to use the pictures I used, just save them or something! Later.

New TTM Idea!

So, as you may know, I'm a big fan of mr. motown philly (squeepa 21) on youtube. I really like the fact that he does ttm requests often, and one time I tried one. I sent it to Brad Smith, wide receiver on the Jets, and I don't think I'm getting it back. So I have a new request. Jeff King. 4 Time Iditarod champion, and a legend with the dogs. In school we did an Iditarod race project, following their positions, dogs healths, and weather/trail conditions for a single musher that we picked, and I picked Jeff King. I went home one day, thinking where I have heard that name before, because I don't follow the Iditarod much. I started flipping through my Allen & Ginter set and came across this card:

Yes, it's Jeff King, and I'm sending this out to Mr. King so he can sign it, along with an index card for his signature that I might give to my English teacher, because I'm sure he will really like it. Thanks for looking guys, and see ya!