Ralph Kiner (1922-2014)

I recently purchased a few more index card autographs from an eBay seller.

The first, Ralph Kiner, was a player and broadcaster for many years. Unfortunately this one is personalized "to Bill", but it's still a nice clean signature on an index card. It also feels nice to finally get this one in my collection. Kiner was a HOFer who would sign through the mail for many years, however my attempts were not successful, and then he passed away in 2014. 

You can see my failed attempts here and here. 

Rest in Peace, Ralph Kiner

I never was able to get my hands on an autograph from Hall of Famer, Ralph Kiner, so it was especially sad for me to hear of his passing last week. Mr. Kiner was an incredible player and long-time broadcaster in baseball.

My thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends. 

Failure #19: Ralph Kiner

Just like Stan Musial (but in a different way), I received my second failure from the same player when Ralph Kiner sent me back my envelope marked with Return to Sender on it.

Like Musial, I will take the hint, and stop trying. My last Kiner failure was also a RTS... Oh well.

Failure #14: Ralph Kiner

Ralph Kiner is the 6th oldest living Hall of Famer out there.  He has a storied career and has even spent time in the broadcast booth as an announcer for the New York Mets.

Today i got a somewhat curious envelope return.  You see, I had originally addressed this envelope to the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.  They received it and then covered up the address with a personal address for Mr. Kiner.  It then arrived in Florida and was marked "Return" in bright blue ink, and proceeded to be sent back to Pasadena to my mailbox.

Wow.

My first thought was that Kiner had pulled the same move as his fellow Hall of Famer, Red Schoendienst (remember the detective work I did?), but a Google search seemed to reveal that this envelope was most likely not written on by Mr. Kiner.

Anyway, this is my 14th failure to only 12 successes.  I'm craving something good to show up in the mail soon.

Update

Here's the new plan.  A few weeks ago during my rundown of where the collection stands, I mentioned that there are four players with no known address.  Usually when that happens I send requests to the Hall of Fame and they get forwarded on.  However I have read for those four players, the letters usually get returned to sender and never make it to the player.  Sometimes you even get a letter from the Hall of Fame explaining that the letter cannot be forwared.

I figured it would be interesting to see what happens.  Today I am sending out autograph requests to the four players - Ozzie Smith, Willie McCovey, Frank Robinson, and Ralph Kiner - all care of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.  I will be sure to post if I get anything back related to these four players.