Seeking help on unique Knoblauch bat

[mattjc1983]

Hola, wondering if anyone would share some advice on a Knoblauch-autographed bat (allegedly); Knoblauch is obscure enough to today's average fan that there really isn't a good place to ask this but we have enough expertise on here that maybe I'll get lucky (or maybe someone has even seen this bat before!).

I grew up an absolutely huge Knoblauch fan and as an adult I (like many of you I'm sure) have been able to pick up things that were a pipe dream as a kid, like Knoblauch autographed balls and his 1992 Score buyback auto. The one thing that has always eluded me is a signed bat. I've had eBay saved searches for years and it simply appears that Knoblauch didn't sign a ton of bats, and those that he did are Yankee logoed, of questionable authenticity, or only available at exorbitant prices from places like Steiner Sports.

On Sunday, I grabbed the pictured bat via buy-it-now on eBay. The price was low enough (~$55) that I was comfortable with the risk, but I'm skeptical re: its authenticity for several reasons:

• I've collected autographs for a long time and I've seen very few items with as long and neatly printed an inscription as the ROY inscription on this bat. Even if the signature is actually Chuck, I'm wondering if the inscription is not. But what would be the point of adding an inscription to an autographed item that isn't inscribed by the player themselves? That would actually devalue an item in my mind.
• A person wanting to fake Knoblauch's signature had a convenient example etched on the barrel just 6 inches away, and the written signature, while pretty close to his actual signature, is suspiciously almost an exact copy of the etched signature.
• The numbering says this is 392/500, but I've literally only seen one other bat like this come on eBay in all my years of saved searches. If there were really 500 of these made, I suspect I would have seen more over the years.
• The seller has no provenance at all and says it was in a storage locker.

The few things giving me confidence are:

• This is a pretty fancy bat, indicating that maybe it was a corporate giveaway of some sort? I'm skeptical that someone wanting to fake a signature (especially of someone as inconsequential as Knoblauch) would spend the kind of money it probably cost for each of these bats, as opposed to just getting generic bats from a box store. On the other hand, Knoblauch was a ROY, so in the early 90's faking something like this may have been fairly lucrative.
• The signature does look pretty close, even with the skepticism noted above.
• The bat was found in a storage locker in League City, Texas, which is only 30 minutes from Chuck's hometown of Houston. So if it was some kind of a corporate giveaway, it'd probably be done in that area.

Don't know if there are any fellow Twins fans here that might have an opinion? Thanks in advance.

[Huck]

I have never seen a Knoblauch signature that, uh, er, nice. Usually, his signature is an unreadable mess with no separation between the first and last name. Granted, this could have been a paid deal where Chuck took his time and signed all 500 bats cleanly, but I have my doubts. I question whether the inscription was added by Chuck. I doubt that Chuck would have been asked to add 392/500 and the 9's in 1991 and 392 look to be from the same hand.

From my experience younger players tend to sign with a full signature (see how Cal Ripken's signature has changed over the years). So, it is possible that that the bat was a signed after his rookie campaign. I agree that there is little money in forging Knoblauch signatures.

If he signs like this for Steiner https://www.steinersports.com/chuck-...-roy-insc.html - I would want more of a background story.

[mattjc1983]

I agree with your analysis for the most part. I actually don't have much of an issue with the signature itself as I have seen (and have) earlier Chuck Knoblauch signatures which I believe to be authentic which are more written out (kind of like Puckett's signature). And Knoblauch's signature seems to be an enigma anyway, I have middle career ones that look like the one you pictured, and then more recent Steiner signatures of his that look like they're signed by someone 40 years older (almost look fake because of the slowness/shakiness). I know he's not the healthiest looking guy these days but he shouldn't be signing like Hank Aaron at this point in his life.

The inscription, as you said, seems unlikely to be him; it's hard to imagine any athlete writing that out 500 times. While my initial instinct then is "Who would be stupid enough to add their own inscription to a bat autographed by an athlete?", I again come back to the potentiality that this was some corporate thing organized by someone who had no idea what they were doing and foolishly thought that would be a nice addition to the bat.

Overall, I've wasted enough money on things over the years that I'm comfortable at the price for the potential that it's real, simply because there really aren't great options out there for Knoblauch bats. If/when I do find a better option, I'll grab it.

Thanks again for your feedback!

P.S. I did message him on Twitter on the off chance that he would address the question; nothing so far though