(CBSSPORTS.COM/C. Trent Rosecrans) – Ringo Starr and Nomar Garciaparra may have something more in comment than a prominent proboscis — both take care of their fans autograph requests, even if it’s not in that timely of a manner.
In the second season of the Simpsons, there’s a story of the Beatles drummer personally returning all of his fan mail and finally getting to a letter and painting from young Marge. Starr is at letters from 1966 — 25 years before the episode aired.
Turns out, Garciaparra is a little quicker than Ringo, so he’s got that going for him.
Chad Williams, who grew up in Florida and now lives in Los Angeles, sent a baseball cards to the former Red Sox shortstop 1997 when he was in middle school and going through an autograph collecting phase. Well, on Monday, Chad got a call from his mom in Florida:
“Hello, Chad? Were you expecting mail at our house? This plain envelope came in the mail, no return address, and…it looks like all in your handwriting?”. I had NO idea what she was talking about. Naturally since I now live 3,000 miles away from Florida, I asked her to open it.
She calls me back...
“It’s these baseball cards from a Nomar Garciaparra? One is signed” Garciaparra, or someone acting on his behalf, send the larger signed card seen below, and sent back the original Donruss card Chad sent back in 1997.
Hey, better late than never — and it only took 14 years, although, as beloved as Garciaparra was in his time in Boston, he was never exactly a Beatle. But good on him for getting around to it. I think it’s pretty cool he’s doing that. And at it least made an interesting story for a slow Monday as we wait for spring training to begin.
Below is a picture of the card and Williams’ 14-year old self addressed stamped envelope. (I wonder if Nomar picked up the extra postage to make up for the increase in the last 14 years?)
I heard about this on the local sports talk radio station a few days ago and thought it was pretty cool. I googled it to see if I could find out more. I found a few articles but CBS even included a picture. I don't want to ruin Chad's good story but does anyone else think that looks like a standard issue postcard with a preprinted autograph?
The first thing I thought was Nomar had personally responded, but I think the autograph is a pre-printed / a facsimile too.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard to tell in that bad photo. Either way, it is still a good story.
ReplyDeleteAlways liked Nomar. A friend of mine worked for the Sarasota Red Sox years ago and mentored him during his brief time there. Nice kid.
ReplyDelete