Collecting Autographs in the good old days

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back in the early to mid 1980s I used to send some TTM requests and got back quite a few...I think they were mostly rubber stamps. What made me mad though was that I sent probably 10 requests to the Boston Red Sox...my favorite team and I didn't get a single one back. I sent Pete O'Brien three cards to sign..one each of his rookie cards from 1984..he signed the Fleer, but sent the other two back unsigned...maybe he thought I was going to try to sell his autograph for a whole 25 cents or something?

Last year I tried an experiment and sent out about 20 requests to players who played for Lincoln in the minors from 1947 to 61...I only got one back signed - Larry Shepard who managed in the mid 1950s and went on to manage the Pirates and coach for the Reds. In May I saw a newspaper article on a guy who played for Lincoln in 1948 and I just happened to have a photo of him so I had the photo copied and sent him a few which I told him he could keep. He sent me back the signed photo and even typed up a letter to me which he also signed. I thought that was awesome. He's 89 years old.