ChasRR15
08-15-2006, 09:45 AM
Well I never really realized how odd this was until I read a baseball collectibles magazeine a few months ago, and it had a big article on what to do and what not to do when sending letters to your favorate athletes, and I laughed when I read it becuase I did almost the opposite of everything it said, and that was the only time I was succesful with fanmail.
Me and a group of my friends sent letters to the Baltimore Orioles in(I believe it was) 2001, each of our letters were sent to Cal Ripken Jr., and in each letter we wrote a basic 'Please Sign my Card' type of message. We included SASE, and about 3 1/2 weeks later, we each got our SASE back. But what we got back wasn't our card autoed, but our card unautoed and a mini 3x5 picture of him with a facesmile auto on it, and a letter that was the same for each of us, a basic
'To my kindest fans,............'
Its was black and white, and you could tell they massprinted about 25,000 of them kinda thing.
Well some of my friends were a little disappionted becuase they didn't really get anything out of it and wanted something to be able to show someone. Well this is where the story get interesting, I decided to send another letter, but, this one would be different, and this is the one where I broke all the rules in 'the book'.
First off, the article I read said never to send them 'gifts' becuase they'd get too many, and end up doing nothing with them, well, i did just that. Out of a piece of wood in my basement, I carved a picture of Cal into it and carved the words 'Cal Ripken Jr.' into it. I also drew a picture of Cal on a big piece of contrustion paper, and then pasted pictures of him around the sides.
Next the article said make sure to write a short letter, no longer than 1 page, and right to the point, like say I'm a fan, can I have your auto? Nope-Nope
I didn't do either, My letter was a good eight pages long, and in it I wrote all about what I did in baseball, how me and my friends always played sandlot ball during the summer, and how i got Most Improved Player award in Little League and things like that. But no where in my letter did I ever ask for a autograph, I just said I'm a fan, and I hope you enjoy my gifts, I put it in a big box and sent it out.
I wasn't expecting anything from it, but was still anxious to see if I did get anything back, but after the first two months passed, and nothing back, I figured it probably was just thrown out like I had been told. But then, in July of 2002(8 months after I sent it). I can home to find a package waiting for me. My Address was hand written, and the return address was a Cal Ripken Jr. Foundation(I believe). I got really excited, and opened it up, and was very surprised with what I found.
Now remembering the first letter I got, this one was MUCH different. First off, it was in full color, and it wasn't started off with 'To my kindest fans..' But it started off with:
'Dear Devon,
I'd like to thank your for the great gifts you sent........'
I couldn't believe it, it was litterally written to me. Yet as I was reading it, I figured maybe a lot of people send him gifts, and this is the generic letter for that, well that thought ended quickly as I noticed that there were many, many references to my letter in his. 'Congratulations of winning the Most Improved Player award, that must have been very exciting' and 'Its great that you play sandlot baseball with your friends' and things like that, and I was really happy when I read that, becuase the MIP award part of my letter was on like the 7th page, so i knew that it had to have been read.
And then at the very bottem, it was signed Cal Ripken Jr., although to this day, I still have never been able to tell if that auto is real or fake. But along with this great letter came a Cal Ripken Jr. autographed 8x10 picture, with a real autograph on his farewell tour picture, it was really a great experience for me.
So I just always thought it was funny that i did exactly what I was supposed to NOT do, and thats when i was successful.
And i also was never sure if it was from Cal himself, I always believed that it was probably someone who worked for Cal who wrote back to me, but, the fact that it was read and responded to was always great for me to know.
And if I posted a picture of Cals signature on the letter, does anyone think theyd be able to tell if its a real or a print?
Thanks.
Me and a group of my friends sent letters to the Baltimore Orioles in(I believe it was) 2001, each of our letters were sent to Cal Ripken Jr., and in each letter we wrote a basic 'Please Sign my Card' type of message. We included SASE, and about 3 1/2 weeks later, we each got our SASE back. But what we got back wasn't our card autoed, but our card unautoed and a mini 3x5 picture of him with a facesmile auto on it, and a letter that was the same for each of us, a basic
'To my kindest fans,............'
Its was black and white, and you could tell they massprinted about 25,000 of them kinda thing.
Well some of my friends were a little disappionted becuase they didn't really get anything out of it and wanted something to be able to show someone. Well this is where the story get interesting, I decided to send another letter, but, this one would be different, and this is the one where I broke all the rules in 'the book'.
First off, the article I read said never to send them 'gifts' becuase they'd get too many, and end up doing nothing with them, well, i did just that. Out of a piece of wood in my basement, I carved a picture of Cal into it and carved the words 'Cal Ripken Jr.' into it. I also drew a picture of Cal on a big piece of contrustion paper, and then pasted pictures of him around the sides.
Next the article said make sure to write a short letter, no longer than 1 page, and right to the point, like say I'm a fan, can I have your auto? Nope-Nope
I didn't do either, My letter was a good eight pages long, and in it I wrote all about what I did in baseball, how me and my friends always played sandlot ball during the summer, and how i got Most Improved Player award in Little League and things like that. But no where in my letter did I ever ask for a autograph, I just said I'm a fan, and I hope you enjoy my gifts, I put it in a big box and sent it out.
I wasn't expecting anything from it, but was still anxious to see if I did get anything back, but after the first two months passed, and nothing back, I figured it probably was just thrown out like I had been told. But then, in July of 2002(8 months after I sent it). I can home to find a package waiting for me. My Address was hand written, and the return address was a Cal Ripken Jr. Foundation(I believe). I got really excited, and opened it up, and was very surprised with what I found.
Now remembering the first letter I got, this one was MUCH different. First off, it was in full color, and it wasn't started off with 'To my kindest fans..' But it started off with:
'Dear Devon,
I'd like to thank your for the great gifts you sent........'
I couldn't believe it, it was litterally written to me. Yet as I was reading it, I figured maybe a lot of people send him gifts, and this is the generic letter for that, well that thought ended quickly as I noticed that there were many, many references to my letter in his. 'Congratulations of winning the Most Improved Player award, that must have been very exciting' and 'Its great that you play sandlot baseball with your friends' and things like that, and I was really happy when I read that, becuase the MIP award part of my letter was on like the 7th page, so i knew that it had to have been read.
And then at the very bottem, it was signed Cal Ripken Jr., although to this day, I still have never been able to tell if that auto is real or fake. But along with this great letter came a Cal Ripken Jr. autographed 8x10 picture, with a real autograph on his farewell tour picture, it was really a great experience for me.
So I just always thought it was funny that i did exactly what I was supposed to NOT do, and thats when i was successful.
And i also was never sure if it was from Cal himself, I always believed that it was probably someone who worked for Cal who wrote back to me, but, the fact that it was read and responded to was always great for me to know.
And if I posted a picture of Cals signature on the letter, does anyone think theyd be able to tell if its a real or a print?
Thanks.