The death of the autographed ball
 

I'm a huge Giants fan but thes days I can only make out a few of their signatures that I've happened to see before. Back in the day, I could identify every player's signature. McCovey and Marichal had especially beautiful signatures. Who would want to pay for a modern team ball filled with scribbles? Here's a 1962 Giants ball and a 2010 version. :mad:

Cursive writing no longer taught in schools. 😂

I think it helps the auto'd ball hobby. Usually not knowing leads to research, which leads to "rabbit holes" (but I could be totally wrong). I actually don't mind it, but I'm one of those people that think personality is shown in signatures and love how some vary from neat to essentially doodles, ha!

Looking at that baseball makes me feel how the first explorers who ran across ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics must've felt.

Every panel is just as bad.

I hear you, Rob. I totally agree!

Today's signatures are an insult to the fans. Players can't even write their names or even something that resembles a name for that matter. It's sad and pathetic at the same time. Have some pride in your name and sign it that way.

Funny, even as recent as a1998 Yankees ball is still full of great signatures

I have been collecting autographs for years both in the Topps 40 years baseball book and on Topps cards. I have given up on autographed cards, especially from the young athletes. They have such terrible penmanship. The older athletes have such beautiful autographs. It is like art. Mantle, DiMaggio, Killebrew and others had wonderful signatures. I got Joc Peterson at a Sac Rivercats game before he got called up and he signed a JP on my card. Couldn’t believe it. I stopped trying to get autographed sets and turned my collection in a different direction. Kind of bummed as I had been doing the autographed cards since the late 80’s and early 90’s.

Earlier this season I posted this story about my son meeting a bunch of the Red Sox players. He had them sign a 2018 World Series ball.

I attached two pictures of the ball here. Thank God that many of them added their numbers for him, and that I jotted down that day who had signed it, or I'm sure we'd have no idea whose scribbles were whose on the ball.

And they took their time to sign for him - I can't imagine if they had been in a rush!

I know these younger player's sigs are barely legible, but at least they don't charge hundreds of dollars for them...oh wait. :eek:

It's a product of our time. Nobody wants to wait around for anything. Think about how you feel at the store when you use your debit card and have to sign the receipt while a long line stands behind you waiting for you to finish writing your name. You'd probably be inclined to scribble and move on. Times that feeling by thousands of people standing around waiting for you to finish one autograph and sign their before you decide you've spent too much time there already. Scribble and move on.

We can still be glad some great recent players are proud of their fans and signature

Judge sports a good auto

He's no Joe DiMaggio.

Who is Aar J?

Gari H ???

If that was a grapefruit it could be Richard Widmark. 10 points for those that get that reference...100 if you're under 40.

Torii Hunter was probably the last decent autograph guy

Hunter gives credit to Harmon Killebrew for his autograph being decent

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/29/s...g-analyst.html

Autograped anything might as well go by the wayside nobody wants to look at that crap:mad:

I don't collect signed items, but my next door neighbor gave me this one for collecting her mail while she was away attending a family gathering in NC. It is signed by her MLB-playing nephew. Does anyone recognize who's signature this is?
The only clue I need to provide is, her last name is Bumgarner.

This............

Madison Bumgarner. 16 letters, condensed to 2. You can see his #40.

I Love Lucy...

Widmark signed it for Lucy in one of the "California" episodes, and it later shriveled up! When she read the name, she pronounced it funny, because of the scrunched up letter formation. Great reference!

Yep, 10 points for you. To finish the reference, she also got an Orange signed by Robert Taylor (it also shriveled up) and let's not forget her stealing John Wayne's sig and hand prints from Grauman's Theater. Ah, back in the day when TV was simple and often silly.

I officially excuse William Vanlandingham if he shortened his signature...

Totally agree there are some bad signatures out there. I really only collect modern Reds players. I looked at Nick Senzel and Aristides Aquino balls, both were abbreviations. Perhaps worse than them is Luis Castillo - his is a scribble. Joey Votto is abbreviated. Jose Iglesias is a doodle of some sort. But you know which one I like? Eugenio Suarez. He has a nice signature. I'm really hoping he gets to 50 HRs this year. He'd be the third Reds player ever behind George Foster and Adam Dunn. Crossing my fingers for him. He looks like a fun-loving guy.

Here ya go. Still better than a lot of today's sigs. I used to love that guy...a ton of talent but goofy like many lefty's. :p