Be careful with those signed baseballs - funny story in NY Times
 

I actually tossed a signed 50s Cubs ball my pop gave me at the pitch-back in the back yard for a bit before I came to my 12 year old senses LOL still have it of course.

My grandfather had a ball autographed by a player at a game back in the '30s. He gave the ball to my mother, who at some point in her childhood spilled a container of black ink, and the ball sat in it. Result: no readable autograph(s). I found the ball in a box at my grandmother's house 10-15 years ago and even though it was a mess, since it had sentimental value to mom, I thought it was cool, and placed it in an open display case.

Several years later my ex-wife asked me to dog-sit her foxhound. One day I walked out of the room, and when I returned, the dog had gotten the ball out of the case, gnawed part of the cover to a pulp and then ripped off about half of it. He left the inked side alone. I still have the ball, but I can't imagine what visitors would think of it if I had it displayed.

I had a few minor league and major league balls autographed as a kid, including a Ron Kittle (whoo hoo!) HR ball I retrieved.

I'd spend hours in our large backyard belting baseballs back and forth and used to lose a large number of baseball, softballs, tennis balls, golf balls and whatever else I could swing a bat at, in the woods.

Inevitably, I'd run out of balls and would have to grab one of the cherished (or not so much I guess) balls to keep me busy in the yard, eventually gunking it up, and losing it to.

If my Dad was a collector and had something valuable like a Ruth or Cobb or Mantle, I would have probably pilfered that at some point to. Just part of being a kid in the outdoor age.

Come on folks. Do you think I ever did that? Tho I did make a paper airplane out of my signed slip of paper from Ken Tatum and Bob Montgomery. Not the same thing?:p