autograph book

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Posted By: jim sexton

I just got back from a local antique store. I picked up an old notebook with about 400 autographs in it. The majority of the autos are from the late twenties and early thirties featuring the american association teams of that period, but with a number of notable exceptions. At least 30 or 40 autos were major or ex major league players. A great find for the price. I thought someone recently posted a thread about where to find info on minor league ball players. If anyone knows of such a source, I would appreciate your help.
Some of the minor league teams were columbus, toledo, louisville, milwaukee, st paul and mpls. thanks

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Jim, that is a great find....I would bet out of 400 autographs you have some fairly significant autos in there. Apparently there is a CD available on the net with information on minor league team rosters, but IIRC it didn't go back to the 1920s. I'm sure Jodi Birkholm will chime in on this thread.

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Posted By: Rhys

There is potentially some nice signatures in there. As with any signatures from that era, the difficulty of the name (largly based on when they passed away) is combined with the popularity of the player to translate to monetary value. If you have players who died before World War 2, they are probably worth a decent amount even if they were "common" players, but death date is not the only factor. Sometimes the managers of these teams were prominant players from the turn of the century and can be quite scarce and tough to come by as well.

If you post or e mail the names of some of the ex-major leaguers and even the minor leaguers, myself and some other autograph guys on here can help you with an approximate value and scarcity if you want.

Looks like you have mostly American Association guys which was a very prominant minor league so congratulations on a great find!

Rhys Yeakley
themodo@hotmail.com

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Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

Hi Jim,

Yes, Dan was right! Of course I'll chime in here! I love old autograph books of that period, and would be interested in hearing more. Please feel free to email me and I'll see what I can do to help you with info.

Take care,

Jodi
vintagebbautos@yahoo.com

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Posted By: jim sexton

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Posted By: jim sexton

Above is a typical page out of my book, although most do not have pictures. Some of the notable names are, Ira Thomas, Jimmy Austin, Joe Cronin, Carl Mays, Bill Killefer, Muddy Ruel, Ivy Wingo, Rick Ferrell, etc. I have identified about 40 major Leagers so far, but most are journeymen.

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Posted By: jim sexton

There also was this neat business card with the book. I can't make out the sig.

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Posted By: Rhys

It says "Glad to comply" above the name of Heydler. He was famous for his notations on his business cards and then not actually signing them.

Rhys

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Posted By: Vincent

One possible CD that Dan B. is referring to may be found at the Old-Time Data, Inc. website:

http://baseball-almanac.com/minor-league/about.html

It appears they have two different databases available:

The Professional Baseball Player Statistical Database (1920-1929)
The Professional Baseball Player Database (1922-2004)

The Professional Baseball Player Statistical database contains year-by-year records for major and minor league players between 1920 and 1929. Every player who is listed in the Official Baseball Guides for those seasons is included, and many who were omitted from the Guides because of limited playing time have been researched and added to the database. In addition, a number of professional leagues whose statistics were not included in the Guides have been added (please see the Contents page for complete league listing).

The Professional Baseball Player Database (Version 6.0) contains year-by-year records for major and minor league players between 1922 and 2004. Every player who is listed in the Official Baseball Guides for those seasons is included, and many who were omitted from the Guides because of limited playing time have been researched and added to the database.


One possible concern is that the CD has data only through 2004. This might indicate the website has has not been updated since 2004. It could be obsolete. But who knows; the CD might still be available.
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I've never used either database myself, but have considered purchasing them over the past couple of years. Maybe 2008 will be the year I do so.

I personally love old autograph album books too. And some of my best finds have been with the minor league team signed pages. Several of the tough turn-of-the-century ballplayer autographs I have served in some compacity (coaches, managers, scouts) with minor league teams.


Best of luck to you.

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Posted By: Max Weder

Somewhat as an aside, baseballreference.com appears to be adding minor league stats, as they indicate they have records going back 16 years to 1992 (well, it's a start...not sure how far they can or will go back)

I haven't checked out the site enough to determine whether you can search a player like on the major league site.

http://minors.baseball-reference.com/

Max

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Posted By: jim sexton

Vincent, Thank you for the info. I have spent hours already reseaching the minor league players. Of the approximately 400 players who signatures appear in the book, 250 spent at least a day in the majors.