help with another auto
 

This ball is in a lot I am looking to buy and the seller does not know who it is
I couldn't find a #51 that matched the auto. Any help would be great.

Perfect game pitcher Dallas Braden

Definitely Dallas
 

HOF Auto Rookies is correct. This is definitely Dallas Braden's sig.

Compare that scribble to say a Tris Speaker,,, shame these current players take such little pride in their signature.

I'm a Yankee collector, so I may be biased.. Mariano Rivera and Reggie Jackson have two of the prettiest signatures when they take their time.

In most part I think most older generation players have better signatures, where most new players (in the last 20 years or so) have scribble.

You can probably chalk this up to penmanship not being a requirement in most school curriculum anymore. I hardly remember learning cursive in school (I am 26 now, so my generation would not have had focus on it either)

My thoughts, but yea all the old players autos are nice and you can tell who they are for the most part by reading them

I would also add that the computer age has completely changed everyone's emphasis on handwriting. I find my own penmanship heavily challenged as a result. I'm sure that others have the same experience, FWIW... :rolleyes:

Well I hope your not like me and look at something I wrote a year ago and have no idea what it says :/

JimStinson
 

I'll bet when they sign their Major League contracts you can read every letter

That's probably correct...I know for the newer Bowman cards they have a facsimile autograph from the players' Topps Rookie contract, and those are scribbles depending on the player.

Warren Spahn has ludicrously bad handwriting, current prospect Levi Michael has stunning penmanship.

I think that this "back in the old days..." stuff is a bit off base.

Jackie Bradley Jr has a great signature, but now I think he does "JBJr"

This was an article from last year I found. Pretty cool

http://goodmenproject.com/sports-2/sweet-sigs/

Warren Spahn
 

Cubsfan-Budman,

Although admittedly Warren Spahn's autograph deteriorated in his later years, I tend to disagree with you on this.

Here is an earlier version of his signature, a GPC from 1952. It looks pretty good to me, compared to today's player chicken tracks that they call an autograph. :rolleyes:

Harmon Killebrew has a great sig. IMO. I must agree with others regarding the impact technology has had on penmanship. As an English teacher I must decipher their scribble. There are times when I can barely recognize the student's name. Mind you, this is print we're talking about! My students often complain of wrist fatigue when writing but a paragraph as so much of their "writing" takes place on a word processor. Also, Derek Jetter's sig is a train wreck!

As a recently resigned educator, I agree that Killebrew is one of the best in the hobby.

JimStinson
 

Reminds me of the John Kennedy & Jungle Jim Rivera meeting. Anyone that has ever seen JFK's signature will know what I mean. Goes like this, Kennedy throws out first pitch opening day. Rivera who didn't get his nickname "Jungle Jim" by accident retrieves the ball and gives it to Kennedy, and while doing so asks the President if he would sign a baseball for him. Kennedy does and hands it to Rivera who looks at it and says "Whats this ???"

You can pick and choose to find a handful of signers who do not fit the stereotype, but take any team-signed ball from the 40's and compare it to a modern team-signed ball and the difference will be striking. On the modern ball, the only signatures that you can actually "read" are typically the coaches'. The others, you just have to memorize their glyphs.

+1

I just think its funny I can go on ebay, type in a person's name (Philip Humber for instance) and have no idea if the signature even spells the name right.

Philip Humber's autograph is definately one of the worst, but there are many...

carlos gomez autograph is a joke.

Quick 2 cents, Ryne Sandberg may have the worst auto. in the history of written language. This is based on the last 9-10 years at paid signings, he may have had a better sig. in his younger days, I don't know.

ryno
 

That's true about ryno. He did have a nicer earlier signature. Funny story that happened recently regarding ryne Sandbergs autograph. I was getting Cal Ripken to sign my hall of fame bat with about 20 signatures on it as hes flipping it around he stops and stares at on in perticuliar. It is RYnos scrawl he stops and asks " who is this". When I replied that is Ryne Sandberg he says "oh boy I got to talk to him about that one"

That's funny. I remember getting Ryno, along with about 13 other hof'ers, sign my HOF book in 2008. The only way I could identify his sig was through process of elimination. Seemed like a nice guy though.

Ryno the "trendsetter"
 

I recall having a similar experience like Mike.

I got Ryno to sign a ball back in 1990 or 1991. When he finished signing it and handed the ball back to me, I couldn't believe that that was his signature. I don't believe at any point before that, I ever had received an autograph from a baseball player that was literally illegible. To this day, when I look at it, I still don't know how you ever get "Ryne Sandberg" out of a sloppy "R", hump, hump, hump, sloppy "S", hump, hump, hump, loop. :eek:

Looking back, this was a watershed moment. Maybe, Ryno was a "trendsetter", or maybe "The Godfather" of all crappy signatures?? :rolleyes:

Just a thought:

I'm curious, what other first tier players, say 1990 and before, do you recall having notoriously illegible signatures?

It might be fun to post pictures of some of the worst. Current players should be excluded because this thread may never end.... :p