Baseball Autograph Book from 1941-1942

[muggsy]

Hey guys, I just thought this is something fun to share, and I haven't found anyone with as much interest in it as me.
I was given an autograph book my grandfather had. The book itself is in pretty poor condition but there are these pages that survived.

I believe all signatures are from 1942 Spring Training (in Florida; Tampa/Clearwater area)

There are more than 80 signatures in this book including 9 HoF—Mel Ott, Casey Stengel, Pee Wee Reese, Stan Musial, Lloyd "Little Poison" Waner, Paul "Big Poison" Waner, Ernie Lombardi, Enos Slaughter, Billy Southworth, also Hiram Bithorn (the first player from Puerto Rico) and more. Both MVP and "Top Pitcher" (no Cy Young awarded yet) of the year.

There's a Stan Musial that is before his 1942 rookie season. He played only 12 games, in 1941, at this point. This is probably worth the most if I were to guess; since it is one of his first autographs he'd signed.

Also it being 1942, it's pre-war and a majority of these guys went to military service after this.

Instead of a bunch of images, I made this giant collage for now.
I believe all are identified now!






I don't know what something like this could be worth. But I'm really curious what it could draw. It'd cost a thousand to get it PSA authenticated and that's not worth it to me (when I know firsthand he didn't forge them too.) Right now I have no intention on selling it, I like having it. But I'd also like to know what sort of interest it draws too, and if there's a ballpark figure I could put on it.

EDIT:
So here is a big list of signatures identified. Sorry they are going to be all over the place from the pictures you see.

NYG
#Hank Leiber
*Mel Ott
Bubber Jonnard (coach)

NYG
Ace Adams
Anthony "Tony" DiBartolo (minors)
Gus Mancuso (traded to STL in '42)

BRO
Les Webber
Augie Galan
*Pee Wee Reese

STL
*Stan Musial (rookie)

STL
*Enos Slaughter
Harry Gumbert
Harry Walker
Howard "Howie" Pollet

STL
*Mort Cooper (MVP of '42)

STL
Marty Marion

STL
#Whitey Kurowski	
Creepy Crespi

STL
*Billy Southworth
Leo Ward (traveling secretary)

CIN
#Hank Sauer
Joe Abreu
Joe Beggs
Gee Walker
Ival Goodman

CIN
#Lonny Frey
Ival Goodman
Dick West
Bucky Walters
Eddie Joost

PIT
Pete Coscarart
Bob Klinger
Hank Gornicki
#Rip Sewell

PIT
#Bob Elliott
John Lanning
Jim Wasdell
Luke Hamlin

PHI
Al Glossop
Dan Litwhiler
Bob Bragan
Johnny Podgajny
Walter "Boom-Boom" Beck
Hans Lobert (manager)

PHI
*Lloyd Waner
Frank "Lefty" Hoerst
Benny Culp
Earl Naylor

PHI
Frank "Rube" Melton
Merrill "Pinky" May
Ernie Koy
Mickey Livingston
Si Johnson

PHI
Gordon Pixley


BSN
Lou Tost
Manuel Salvo
*Casey Stengel
*Paul Waner

BSN
Al "Skippy" Roberge
#Phil Masi
"Tom" Dunn (NL Umpire; well-known then)
Al Javery
Jimmy Wallace
John Cooney

BSN
Sibby Sisti
Chet Ross
Clyde Kluttz

BSN
#Eddie Miller
Tommy Holmes
Dick Errickson

BSN
Frank Demaree
*Ernie Lombardi

CHC
Lou Stringer

CHC
Ed Hanyzewski
Lennie Merullo
Claude Passeau

CHC
#Hiram "Hi" Bithorn

CHC
Lou Stringer
Chico Hernandez
Bill Fleming
Bill Nicholson

[muggsy]

[muggsy]

I don't know who this one is:

[btcarfagno]

I haven't looked through in great detail to see if there are any "hidden gems" (players who are obscure and died young and tough to find). That said, what I do see with Ott and Southworth and Bithorn and an early Musial, you are likely looking at around $600-800 value.

Tom C

[theshleps]

I'd say you might be able to get 1200-1500

[muggsy]

Originally Posted by btcarfagno

I haven't looked through in great detail to see if there are any "hidden gems" (players who are obscure and died young and tough to find). That said, what I do see with Ott and Southworth and Bithorn and an early Musial, you are likely looking at around $600-800 value.

Tom C

Bithorn was murdered in 1951, if we can consider 35 young...
I haven't typed out the full list of player names yet for the hidden gems that I missed—such as those who died young or didn't return to baseball after the war, etc.
There are also some I like such as Ernie Lombardi, Enos Slaughter, Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner.
St. Louis won the World Series in 1942, and there are quite a few of the Cardinals including Southworth, their HoF manager.

[muggsy]

Some I haven't identified:

*under Mel Ott
*under MMarion
*under Southworth
*uppermost-righthand corner... looks something like Puxley?
*below that looks like Neil Cooper, but I don't know who that is.
*under Hank Sauer, Joe Abreu, Joe Beggs, is it Gee Walker?

[bender07]

Agreed that you should hold onto it. Great memory of your grandfather. Also agree with Tom that $800 is about as high as you could expect due to what Ryan detailed.


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[muggsy]

Just for reference, my grandfather actually wants me to sell it. He owned a jewelry store, and his motto was always to sell, not hold on to. He'd say, and did, to sell it lol. I still somewhat disagree with him, yes. It's something really neat to me. But I wanted to see what max value on it would be. Mostly though, show it off and see if anyone even cares about it lol

[muggsy]

.

[btcarfagno]

With all of the auction houses nowadays, I see maybe 15-20 similar autograph books every year come up for auction. Unfortunately they are not worth the sum of their parts. Someone looking for a Mel Ott won't pay the extra for all of the other autographs he doesn't want. He can also likely find a signed index card or GPC with just Ott instead of a cramped signature as one of ten signatures on a page. A dealer won't pay full price either as a collector likely wouldn't happen to want all of these same autographs. It is worth the most to someone who will "harvest" the signatures and cut up the album to sell them off individually.

This maybe you take the five biggest and most valuable names and add up their value and that is a good indication of the total value upon sale.

Tom C

[theshleps]

I do think it is awful when people cut these up. I have 2 very nice whole albums from the 1930's that are highlights of my collection tho as Tom said the money is in cutting them up. Maybe you'd get $2,000. I'd hold onto it

[muggsy]

I almost regret saying it's my grandfather's, because that's bring up value a lot more than worth. If you knew my grandfather, you'd know he was serious when he says, "you better sell all my stuff after I die." This included a lot of jewelry that family doesn't want to sell either lol. He would WANT me to sell it—and give me a pffft if I said I'd rather keep it. I agree with you guys however that its value has a lot more worth than $800. Selling it isn't my first intention.

[muggsy]

Musial is an interesting one. It's from spring 1942—so leading into his rookie season. It makes it among his first autographs. At some point then he changed his signature into his autograph with the classic 'S'. There are signatures, signed forms and the such, that also show him once signing this way. When he changed and how relatively rare that makes this is something I'm trying to find out.

As I know it's real, this is one I will probably look into authenticating in the best way. Luckily it might also be the signature in best condition and without others around it.

[bender07]

Originally Posted by muggsy

Musial is an interesting one. It's from spring 1942—so leading into his rookie season. It makes it among his first autographs. At some point then he changed his signature into his autograph with the classic 'S'. There are signatures, signed forms and the such, that also show him once signing this way. When he changed and how relatively rare that makes this is something I'm trying to find out.



As I know it's real, this is one I will probably look into authenticating in the best way. Luckily it might also be the signature in best condition and without others around it.

Nice early Musial for sure but his rookie season is ‘41

[muggsy]

Originally Posted by bender07

Nice early Musial for sure but his rookie season is ‘41

Well, I guess it's sort of semantics in how I said it. He played in 1941, but in only 12 games making 1942 his "rookie season" officially. But you could say 1941 is his rookie year.
What's nice about this is it was before the 1942 season. So he had only 12 MLB games under his belt.

[muggsy]

I just realized Mort Cooper won MVP in 1942 when this was signed.

[muggsy]

Now that the 1 left I've concluded is Gordon Pixley, all of the ones shown have been identified! 10 HOFers and the best players of 1942; quite a collection there!

If you check this out, I have All-1942 Team's #1, #2, or #1&2, at every position, including SP+RP. Top Pitcher & MVP. WS Manager.
This is fascinating to me, though I guess there's nothing to do with it but admire it myself. Maybe someone is a huge fan of the 1942 season haha

http://www.thebaseballgauge.com/year...=bypos&lgID=NL