Unassisted Triple Play Club - need to add some sigs
 

I bought a ball in a recent auction which was signed by two early members of the Unassisted Triple Play Club - Johnny Neun and Ron Hansen.

I would love to add some signatures to this, as there are several living players who have done this. The living members are:

Mickey Morandini
John Valentin
Randy Velarde
Rafael Furcal
Troy Tulowitzki
Asdrubal Cabrera
Eric Bruntlett

I will be able to get Valentin to sign this in the near future, but want to see about any of the others.

Any known signings for anyone else? Or are any known good signers through the mail? I wouldn't want to just blindly send this ball through the mail to any of them, and would want to confirm they would sign it prior to my sending it off to them (since it's obviously not possible to replace Johnny Neun on a ball).

I haven't done TTM in quite a while but this could be a fun project to get it going again - but figured best to check with folks who may know a bit more on the topic than I do these days.

Thanks!

Do NOT send that ball in TTM. Wait for those guys to do a private signing and send it in that way. Most of those guys are not good TTM signers. You are just begging for that piece to be lost, and its a nice piece.

Love the UTP ball concept with names and dates. I saw Tulowitzki's UTP in person at Coors field and had a fairly recent TTM success with him at the University of Texas. But I think I got lucky (a lot of recent failures reported) and tend to agree with the private signing approach. Good luck!

Morandini and Bruntlett are doing a private signing soon. Company is Overtime Promotions.

Thanks!! Perfect timing - happens in a few weeks. Appreciate the info!

You might want to research the signatures of the guys you want on that ball. Most of those guys sign in abbreviated scribbles, given the nice Neun and Hansen sigs there.

Excellent point. I had thought about that - the first two I'll add (Morandini and Bruntlett) have tolerable signatures, so I'm OK with that. I will get inscriptions with the dates on any signatures I add to the ball, which hopefully can be done in a legible way as well. So, we'll see!

FWIW I met Morandini at a small group event about 4-5 years ago and here is the ball he signed for me:

https://i.imgur.com/RcZOMDd.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/piDoQ9s.jpg

As an aside, if you are collecting items from Unassisted Triple Play guys, I posted this Neunn letter in the BST Board awhile back:

https://i.imgur.com/t3AOIi2.jpg

Thanks Bill - nice to see the decent signature and inscription that Mickey added on that ball for you!

Reviving an old thread - I've been able to add a few guys to this unique ball over the past couple of years. I got John Valentin in person to sign it for me, and got Rafael Furcal, Mickey Morandini and Eric Bruntlett through private signings.

I'm not great at tracking all of the private signings which occur, so if anyone happens to see any signings with any of the following people, can you please give me a heads up? Thanks in advance! Scott

Randy Velarde
Troy Tulowitzki
Asdrubal Cabrera

There's a Facebook page called Baseball Private Signings that is great for keeping up with signings. Several very reputable promoters among the thousands of people in the group. Asdrubal just did a signing a couple months ago, if you search the FB page and reach out to the promoter he may have another lined up in the future.

Edited to add, that's a nice ball! I met Neun very early in my autographing days. My friend and I were hanging out in front of Memorial Stadium waiting on players in maybe 1987 or 88. An older gentleman approached and asked if we were waiting on autographs, and if we'd mind if he took a look at our cards. He mentioned how neat the cards were, and that they didn't have them back in his day, and we slowly put together that he was a former player. So after he had walked away my buddy and I chased after him and asked his name, and asked if he would mind signing a 3x5 for each of us. He was happy to do so and put all kinds of inscriptions related to the UTP on them. A super nice man and complete dumb luck on our part by being able to get his autograph in person. Every time I see his signature it takes me back to those first few years of collecting when EVERYTHING was much simpler, so thanks for sharing the pic!

That makes at least two past and present N54 members who had great encounters with Neun. One former member was a minor leaguer and Neun was scouting in the stands one day when he played. He knew his baseball history well enough to take advantage of the situation and had a great time hearing stories! None of his teammates had a clue that they were among living history!

Thanks Derek - appreciate the info and will check the Facebook group!

And I was an in-person autograph collector in Boston in the mid-late 1980s as well. It was a wonderful time and much easier to get autos back then - and had a bunch of great experiences with older players back then too. Cool story regarding Neun!