Don Carmen answers fan mail 16 years later

http://www.slate.com/id/2154698/?GT1=8900

Nice article on former Philly Don Carmen taking the time to write back to kids who wrote him over 15 years ago (he apparently just found the letters in a box in his home)....kind of funny because as a kid i used to write to players of his caliber (knowing they would be the only ones to ever even think of writing me back)

 

That's a great little story -- thanks for posting it.

 

Good stuff. Carmen might have been one of the few players I did not solicit autographs from in my youth. Man, I got some bad player autographs back in the day, but after they signed, the guys were my favorite players. That was always quite a rush, seeing that envelope back in the mailbox after weeks. Good memories ...

 

- - He lugged the envelopes down to the Naples post office, where he discovered that most of them included 25-cent stamps. "I told the postman I needed 250 10-cent stamps, and 250 4-cent stamps, and he just looked at me like, 'What are you doing?' " - -

That made me laugh outloud.

As a side: Every pro athlete should be forced to read this story.

 

Dallas Drake stiffed me when he was a rookie with the Red Wings. For a class, we had to send a letter to someone famous...ah, maybe that's why.

Anyways, 15 years later, if I see him, I'm still gonna kick his fucking mullet-ass.

 

Some 20-odd years ago when baseball came back to Louisville, my mom became infatuated with Dyar Miller, formerly of the New York Mets.

One day before a game, there was scores of kids waiting for Miller to finish his warm-ups in the bullpen. He started signing autographs. I was just down there to take his picture. So there's a 7 or 8 year-old Freelance with his Kodak Disc camera in hand -- the strap wrapped across my palm so I wouldn't drop it -- in my first "scrum."

In between his autographs, I blurted out "Mr. Miller." He looked me square in the eyes and I took his picture. I probably should have worried about the flash, but I didn't at the time. With my mission accomplished, I scurried up the rows of old Cardinal Stadium to tell my mom.

Little did I know that Dyar Miller still had his warm-up ball in his pocket. He apparently wanted to give it to me, or so another kid told me a few minutes later. As I ran up the steps, a soft-tossed ball came over my shoulder and ricocheted back down to the scrum. I believe my mom still has that picture somewhere in her room. The ball? Hopefully it was some kid's prized possession. Had I gotten it, I know it would have been mine.

 

See IJAG,

Brook Jacoby may still be writing you back...

 

Just in case any baseball beat writer needed some quotes next season...

1. I'm just glad to be here. I just want to help the club any way I can.
2. Baseball's a funny game.
3. I'd rather be lucky than good.
4. We're going to take the season one game at a time.
5. You're only as good as your last game (last at-bat).
6. This game has really changed.
7. If we stay healthy we should be right there.
8. It takes 24 (25) players.
9. We need two more players to take us over the top: Babe Ruth & Lou Gehrig.
10. We have a different hero every day.
11. We'll get 'em tomorrow.
12. This team seems ready to gel.
13. With a couple breaks, we win that game.
14. That All-Star voting is a joke.
15. The catcher and I were on the same wavelength.
16. I just went right at 'em.
17. I did my best and that's all I can do.
18. You just can't pitch behind.
19. That's the name of the game.
20. We've got to have fun.
21. I didn't have my good stuff, but I battled 'em.
22. Give the guy some credit; he hit a good pitch.
23. He, we were due to catch a break or two.
24. Yes.
25. No.
26. That's why they pay him _____ million dollars.
27. Even I could have hit that pitch.
28. I know you are but what am I?
29. I was getting my off-speed stuff over so they couldn't sit on the fastball.
30. I have my at 'em ball going today.
31. I have some great plays made behind me tonight.
32. I couldn't have done it without my teammates.
33. You saw it... write it.
34. I just wanted to go as hard as I could as long as I could.
35. I'm seeing the ball real good.
36. I hit that ball good.
37. I don't get paid to hit.

 

Ha!

I never wrote him. So there.