Bobby Richardson TTM Return

Today I received a great return from former 1950's and 1960's Yankee Bobby Richardson.

Mr. Richardson has an interesting story.  If you look at his stats, it appears as if he retired at the peak of his career, and he did.  I assumed he suffered some injury that made playing impossible, but the reality is he decided to quit playing baseball to spend more time with his wife and five children (four kids with one on the way at the time).  He was just 31 years old at the time, and probably didn't make the kind of money that today's players make, even adjusted for inflation, despite being an 8-time All-Star, a 5-time Gold Glove winner and the 1960 World Series MVP.

He did some college coaching after his playing days.  He's very religious and includes a religious pamphlet with every request but does not write bible verse inscriptions on cards like some players do.

I included a blue sharpie with my request, despite never receiving a return signed with anything but in my 22 years of sending him requests.  It was more of a gift to him rather than ensuring he'd use it to sign my cards, although I also didn't want to take any chances since I was including some more-expensive cards, including his 1957 Topps rookie card.  I also include $5 per card with my request although he doesn't have a set fee and will sign for free.

His World Series MVP award in 1960 is an unusual one.  It's not that he wasn't deserving, but he is still the only player to win the award that wasn't on the winning team.  There were deserving players on the Pirates team as well, including Vern Law, who won two games for the Pirates and pitched over 18 innings with a 3.44 ERA.  Then there was Bill Mazeroski, who hit the game, and series-winning home run that will live on in highlight reels for as long as there are highlight reels.

I read that the votes for the award had to be in by one of the late innings of the final game, and at that point, the assumption was that the Yankees would win, so Richardson got the votes instead of a Pirates player.

The award winner received a Chevy Corvette!  Wow, a 1960 Corvette.  Richardson wrote me once that many years later, closer to the present than the 1960 World Series anyway, Vern Law asked him if he was taking care of "his" Corvette, implying, probably correctly, that he should have won the award rather than Richardson.

Richardson also noted when I sent him a 1962 Topps for him to keep, that he was going to give it to his Grandson (or Great-Grandson, I can't remember).  I decided that to thank Mr. Richardson for signing for me all these years, that I would try to gather one of each of his cards and send them on to him to share with his grandkids.  I don't know how many he has, but I'll send them, and he can decide how best to share them.  I believe I have purchased them all, including the 1958 yellow letter variant like I received back today, and the insert-type cards (1959 Run Preventers, 1961 Topps World Series game #3, "Richardson is Hero", 1963 and "Bomber's Best").  I included a 1964 Topps Stand Up, a 1963 Fleer, the 1965 Embossed card, a couple Laughlin World Series cards, a couple Post and one Jell-O card, and of course every one of his regular Topps cards from 1957 to 1966.  It added up to more than I thought it would, but once I was committed, I decided not to cheap out.  I even included one of the Topps coins from the mid-60's.  I'll document what I'm sending him to share here but hope to get them in the mail yet this week.

I want to be sure that I don't ask him to sign or return anything to me in this shipment, so there's no misunderstanding and it's clear that these are for him to keep.