Troy Bourke TTM Success

Mailed:  11/04/2013
Received:  12/03/2013
Days:  29
c/o: Prince George Cougars

Troy was a 3rd round pick of the Colorado Avalanche in the 2012 draft.  He is enjoying a good final season of Jr. hockey with 29 points in 29 games so far for the Cougars.

Luca Ciampini TTM Success

Mailed:  11/07/2013
Received:  11/25/2013
Days:  18
c/o: Halifax Mooseheads

Luca was part of the Memorial cup winning Halifax Mooseheads last season.  He had 71 regular season points for them, but he has went undrafted as far as the NHL is concerned.  He will probably be able to get on with an AHL or ECHL team after this season in the QMJHL is done.  He is having a bit of an off year with only 17 points in 29 games so far.

Updating statistics

I love to play around with numbers and since I have been keeping track of sending everything out since 2009, I have kept pretty crazy stats on the successes and failure rates.  I mostly send to Canadian NHL, AHL, and CHL teams with some retired players homes thrown in and the odd US team if I get my hands on some US stamps.  So, here is the stats to date below.

2009, total sent 55, total received 39, percent 70.91%  Top team...Calgary Flames 6/6
2010, total sent 62, total received 44, percent 70.97%  Top team...Vancouver Canucks 4/4
2011, total sent 49, total received 36, percent 73.47%  Top team...Calgary Flames/Ottawa Senators 4/4
2012, total sent 33, total received 23, percent 69.70%  Top team...St. John's Ice Caps 4/4
2013, sent so far 50, received 22, percent 44%  Top team...Hamilton Bulldogs 3/4

I have had really good luck with all of the Canadian AHL teams, so I suggest mailing to those teams for some great prospects.
As for the NHL, it is a bit of a mix.  Calgary and Ottawa are really good.  Vancouver is close behind.  The Leafs, Oilers and Habs are middle of the road, and the Jets are absolutely terrible.

Eddie Pasquale TTM Success

Mailed:  10/23/2013
Received:  11/13/2013
Days:  21
c/o: St. John's Ice Caps

Eddie played some of his Jr. hockey near my hometown.  He has spent this entire season with the Jets' farm affiliate and has a 7-6-1 record with a 2.35 GAA.  He should be up with the Jets at some point in the near future as his numbers are above average to say the least.

Brandon Prust TTM Success

Mailed:  1/24/2013
Received:  10/29/2013
Days:  278
c/o: Montreal Canadiens

Brandon plays a tough style of hockey which made him an instant fan favourite for the Habs.  It is also some of the reason why he is missing games here and there with injuries.  He is out right now with a shoulder injury, but is due back in another week or so.

Ryan Strome TTM Success

Mailed:  3/15/2013
Received:  10/21/2013
Days:  220
c/o: Niagara Ice Dogs

Ryan was a 1st round pick for the Islanders in the 2011 draft.  He is currently playing with the Isles' AHL affiliate, the Bridgeport Sound Tigers.  He has 6 points in 5 games, so look for him to get a call up as soon as they need someone.  He was awesome for Canada at the last 2 World Jr. Championships, scoring 15 points in 12 games in the 2 years.

Bank of America 500, Charlotte, NC

My dad and I flew down to Charlotte, NC this past weekend to attend the Bank of America 500.  The race sucked pretty bad until a mysterious caution late in the race stacked up the field and changed the outcome.  It did produce the best racing of the night between Kasey Kahne and Brad Keselowski battling it out for first, with BK2 coming up with the win.  We got there early, to take in the carnival type atmosphere which was a lot of fun.
     Danica Patrick was running a special car paint scheme for this race to raise awareness for breast cancer charities.  They had a deal on at her hauler, if you bought one of her special items, you could come back and get it signed.  They only gave out 100 bracelets to allow you to get an autograph.  So, I bought this die cast car to get signed.  You couldn't really get a picture with her as she was pretty rushed.

She was very nice.  I thanked her for doing the charity work and told her that my mom is a breast cancer survivor.  She told me that was good to hear and thanked me for supporting her cause.  Here, she just finished signing my car.  My dad was a little late on the trigger.

Donnie Allison was doing a free signing at the Sprint Unlimited Fan Experience, so we jumped in for that.  Donnie won 10 races over his career, but was better known for his on track fight with Cale Yarborough where he took his helmet off and started beating Donnie with it.  I left most of my cards at home, so I took the free postcard that they were giving out.

On the Sunday after the race, we went to the Nascar Hall of Fame and then to this cool little museum up in Mooresville, NC.  It is called the Memory Lane Museum.  They have lots of Nascar stuff there and some other cool old cars and sprints.  http://www.memorylaneautomuseum.com/
If you are ever down that way, go and check it out.  What drew us in to going up there was we had heard about a driver signing there that day.  It was well worth the trip.
Bobby Allison (brother of Donnie) was signing there.  Again, I didn't have anything so I took the free postcard they were offering.  Bobby officially won 84 races over his career and another 2 races that are still being contested.  He seemed like a cool guy in our brief conversation.

One of the other guys that was there was Donald Johnson.  He was the crew chief for Rex White in the 50s and 60s.

Geoffrey Bodine was also signing.  He was one of the first drivers I followed in Nascar back in the early 90s.  He was driving the Exide car which was the same sponsor on the car of Rowdy Burns in Days of Thunder.  He had 18 wins over his career.