Rawlings Dating
 

I don't know if anyone here won this item, but i was wondering what the best way is to date Rawling baseballs(early ones). I thought about bidding on it but i could not determine if the ball was pre 1954 because thats when he died, plus i could not find many examples of his autograph to compare it to. Thanks for any help.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...lenotsupported

I don't like it. All Rawlings baseballs from the 1950s that I have seen have a logo like the one in the following picture which is from the late 1950s. Now I don't claim to be an expert on baseballs, but the logo on the signed ball is the same logo they've used since the 1960s. And believe it or not pre 1960 Rawlings baseballs are quite scarce.

The autograph portion looks horrible as well. Very deliberate and slowly drawn. Looks almost juvenille, and an authentic example would have sold for much more. You did well to stay away.

I passed on it as well. The age of the autograph didn't come close to looking like the age of the ball. Reminds me of an artificially aged broadside.

A fake is a fake, but this one is pretty well done. Looks like a decent copy from one of the exemplars in the PSA/DNA database. McGowan's signature looked very similar to that later in his life. I can't say that I've seen any other examples so the size may have been an issue as well, but the spacing didn't look right too me either.