Holy bleepin bleep! Look what showed up in my mail box today. For the last two weeks I’ve gotten a weird feeling every time I’d checked my mail when returning from work. I sent out nearly 100 autograph requests during Spring Training this year and really didn’t have much success. But for some reason I got a feeling recently that one or two might trickle in now that the season is over. But never in a thousand years did I expect to see Matsuzaka — whom I sent to in July 2007 and had already written off!

As I walked to my mail box, I saw the usual stack of advertisements and what appeared to be bills. I grabbed them and then unlocked by door with one hand, haphazardly thumbing through the envelopes with the other. But as I turned the handle on my door I noticed something yellow peeking from within the stack of ads. It had “Yawkey Way” typed on it. I was immediately intrigued.

The Red Sox are my favorite team, and like thousands of collectors I send out through the mail autograph requests, even to players whom I know will not sign. Why? Because you never know.

When I opened the envelope — which was UNSEALED — and saw this 2007 Upper Deck Star Rookies insert card of Matsuzaka peeking out from a hand-written note from a “Fenway Ambassador” for the Sox, I figured they were just returning my card unsigned. But then I saw the blue ink, I could not believe what I was seeing.

When I pulled this insert card in 2007, I intended to keep it — it was my first card of Daisuke in a Boston uniform. But at the end of one of my TTM letter writing sessions last summer, I decided to send a card to Matsuzaka. I chose this one because it is not an official rookie card — therefore it probably wouldn’t increase in value — so it was no big deal if the card was never returned. It was a gamble, yes. But now some 471 days later it appears to have paid off.

If real, this is a HUGE success. I’d been unwilling to shell out $175 for a pack-seeded Matsuzaka autograph card, so to obtain this for nothing more than a stamp is insane. The signature appears to be authentic. And the fact that it is personalized adds credence to it. Anyone have any opinions on this signature?

As for rarity, I’ve only heard of one other TTM success story with Daisuke. I belong to the widely popular SportsCollectors.Net Web sitet and thus far I am only the second  person to report any type of return. Crazy.

This entry was posted on November 10, 2008 at 6:43 pm and is filed under Card of the Day, TTM Success with tags Auto, autograph, baseball, baseball cards, Boston Red Sox, Crazy Story, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Fenway Park, sports cards, TTM, Upper Deck. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.