MY YEARLY ASSAULT ON SPRING TRAINING - March 2002

I've always considered Spring Training to be the best time to write to ballplayers. For at least a month during the season you can be certain of where to send a letter. So many of us, myself included, have written to minor league prospects and have seen them promoted or in rare cases demoted, and our letters disappear into that void where letters that never catch up to the players that they're pursuing, go.

This year I've sent 210 ST autograph requests out. I don't hammer the big names. If I haven't gotten them before they've established themselves in the Big Show, than I'm remiss in my research. I write to the up and coming young prospects.

"I don't have cards for them yet," you reply.   Make them. I cannabalize my Baseball Weeklies and Baseball Americas using the old Fleer team logo cards or Upper Deck team logo cards to make my own cards of players that I don't have cards of. Baseball America profiles and articles cut and laminated onto index cards work well, as do baseball card-sized pictures laminated onto the back of the aformentioned Fleer and Upper Deck cards. It makes your scrapbook a lot more unique and personal.

"I still want real cards," you say. The best set for prospects this year is the Upper Deck Prospect Premieres set. These are kids that 3 or 4 years down the road will be getting lots of mail. Write to them NOW. Not to mention the set has some real sharp double and triple jersey insert cards that you can pick up very reasonably on e-bay if you keep your eyes open. For instance, as a Midwest Leaguer, I've picked up jersey cards that include Colt Griffin, Mike Jones, J J Hardy, & Casey Kotchman, all kids that i hope to see play in the Midwest league.

Who've I gotten back so far? 52 responses so far, including Mark Prior, Mark Texeira, Colby Lewis, Mike Young, Mario Ramos, Brent Abernathy, Willie Harris, Ryan Kohlmeier, Danny Borrell, Adrian Hernandez, J D Martin, Earl Snyder, Roy Smith, Freddie Sanchez, Larry Bigbee, Lance Niekro, Jacob Peavy, Ricardo Rodriquez, Morgan Ensberg, Jason Lane, Chris Burke, Billy Sylvester, Trey Hodges, Brandon Duckworth, Chase Utley, Jose Reyes, Brandon Phillips, Henry Mateo and Wilken Ruan. Some very good young prospects!

For those of you who don't subscribe to Baseball America, you shoud at least buy their Baseball Directory which will be coming out in mid-March. It gives you the addresses for every major, minor independent league and college team, and gives you the manager and coaching assignments as well. My copy is dog eared from use by the end of every season. I Independent Leagues are often a great source of autographs, and since their staffs often consist of ex-major leaguers, you can really help fill some of those tough to get autograph spaces in your Smalling. Just recently I got two signed cards back from Kent Tekulve, whom I'd written to twice with his Smalling home address with no success. I wrote to him care of the Washington Wild Thing, a new Frontier league team that he's involved with in Pennsylvania. For you people who have access to Independent Leagues near you, they are a great source of autographs also, and great baseball. I follow the Northern League Central closely, being from Duluth originally.

Well, I've rambled on enough. Just one thing. I won't post addresses on this site, since so many website owners are catching flak for that now. Addresses for teams in any league are available at John Skilton's Baseball Links, and if you're into autographing, certainly you know of Smalling's invaluable address book. My column will be at this site as long as Stu deems it useful and entertaining enough. Terrell's Signatures of Success is where I have been, but Terrell's school and job demands have weighed him down to the point where he's had to let go of the hobby for awhile.   I'm here with his blessing and encouragement, and I thank him for that. I believe that my previous articles are still archived and can be accessed at his site.

That's all for now. Have fun with the hobby. I sure do.

~ Rich Hanson