[Runscott]

Karl, those are very good points.

As Jim points out, the fact that Frazee wanted Ruth to remain a pitcher is also a good reason for Frazee to have offered that incentive to Ruth - perhaps to warm Ruth up to the idea of remaining a pitcher.

I honestly wasn't thinking anything was a forgery when I began this thread. Looking at the signatures on both documents, I felt they were reasonable enough to move on to other issues surrounding the documents. If the handwritten item has impeccable provenance for at least 60 years, as the story goes, if the document(s) were bad I would expect at least one of the signatures to be obviously forged, but neither are. Also, for the price that was originally paid (again, 'as the story goes'), if they were forged documents, I would think that the quality would indicate a more lucrative plan. But the story could be off on some of the details.