Spring Training Autographs Through The Mail

If you’re not one of the lucky few making plans for a trip to Spring Training this year, you can still add some nice autographs to your auto stash using the good old American postal service. It’s a lot cheaper than traveling to Florida or Arizona, and you dramatically increase your odds of getting more than junkie credit card offers in your mailbox over the summer. I listed the addresses to each team’s Spring Training site on my previous post about Spring Training tips, and here is a simple sample letter that I would send to a player requesting an autograph:

Dear Javy Lopez,

As an avid Braves fan I want to say “Welcome back!” I think you’re a great baseball player and I hope you have a great season and you can help the Braves make it back to the playoffs. If you have the time, could you sign a card for me? I would really appreciate it and would love to add your autograph to my collection. Good luck this year and thanks for taking the time to read my letter!

Sincerely,

Adam G.

You don’t need to write anything really elaborate, and you should definitely not ask the player to go out of his way to send you used balls, gloves, socks or anything else like that. Be polite, keep it short and simple, and personalize it just enough to let the player know that you actually know something about them.

When you send your letter, be sure to include a self-addressed stamped envelope, a card to be signed, and of course the letter you wrote. There’s always a chance that the player won’t respond, so it’s probably a good idea to send an inexpensive card to get signed, maybe something in the $0.25-0.50 range. Also, don’t be surprised if a popular player doesn’t respond or if you get a generic team letter politely declining an autograph due to excessive demands. Your best shot at an autograph is from a young player, or a lesser known starter.

Once you send off your letter, don’t get too impatient. I’ve heard of fans receiving autographs up to a year later, so even if a player doesn’t respond right away there’s always hope that one day they will.

Here’s just a few of the players that I got autographs from through the mail this past year:

Chuck James

Kyle Davies

Chase Utley

Zach Duke

Ryan Church

And here are some players I never heard back from:

Brian McCann

Andruw Jones

Greg Maddux

All total, I think I spent about $25 on my through-the-mail autographs and received 10 or 12 autographs. It didn’t take much effort and I was pretty happy with what I got. Though I’d rather be spending my spring down in sunny Florida getting autographs in person, through-the-mail autographs is a nice alternative when a fun road trip to Spring Training isn’t possible.