Clancy Smyres
 

I know this is probably a waste of time post, but if anyone has a Clancy Smyres autograph they would like to sell, please let me know. Ill pay top dollar

or if you have one and dont want to sell, please post an image.

Thanks,

You will have to look back, but there was an entire thread on him-including some autograph images.

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What was Clancy's profession post mlb career? He must have been pretty well off. He could have amassed quite a nut releasing a few autographs each year. His heirs could do the same.

I found this in public records, I would love to find this original deed, I dont think you can get more of an authentic autograph then this

Attachment 582832

By far the newest example I've seen. I can just picture that notary public, completely bored, yawning and wanting to go home for the day, not realizing what a rare sight they were witnessing.

He was very active in the Boy Scouts until his death and wonder if he was just as stingy signing merit badge cards for kids :) If not, that might be a good source.

I wonder what his hatred to being asked for his autograph stemmed from?

I find the refusal to sign very fascinating. Such a simple thing that could easily bring happiness to others and some of these guys just flat our refuse.

Aside from fear of fraud/identity theft, would love to hear some good reasons not to sign back in the old days when autographs were not overly popular or expensive, aside from I am a giant A Hole and don't want to. Of course now, with the sports memorabilia market being what it is today, financial reasons would rise to the top.

I collect Dodger autographs and the thought of having most or all is very appealing, but the fact that the team dates so far back makes that task impossible for me, especially given when I started obtaining them seriously. Heck, I am having trouble this year keeping the new Dodger wantlist down and Mookie Betts is still causing me fits crossing him off the list due to his prices.

I know some folks try to get every player ever, but unless you have access to a hoard of early autographs, that is probably impossible to do now as well.

f you don't mind sharing, I am generally curious to know why you want one, aside from the obvious that it is a scarce autograph? Does it help complete a specific theme or collecting goal or is it more generalized?

If I were to come across one somehow, I would likely not be willing to pay the steep premium they seem to hold and it wouldn't help me complete anything specific, other than maybe making it easier to fill in complete years of Dodger rosters until you get back far enough that everyone died a century or more ago anyway. That is not to say I wouldn't pass on a free one, but then again, i'd probably turn around and sell it to someone willing to pay the premium and buy something else.


or

He wouldn't even sign for kids who wrote to him. I am one of two people I know of who both wrote to him as young kids many, many years ago. (Yes, it's strange that any kid would know who he was, but it's nice to know I wasn't alone!). No reply from Smyres, though.

The mention of his autograph's rarity actually made it to print extremely early, in a 1977ish Sporting News blurb.

Maybe he didn't look back on his baseball years fondly and just wanted to move on. It might get irritating if people are constantly reminding you of a time you'd rather forget.

I was going to include Clancy Smyres in my book, The League of Outsider Baseball. The reasn I didn't was that I coundn't find a photo of him from his playing days! The closest I came was a New Orleans newspaper from 1945 that had a large and very clear photo of the Pelicans team - but then at the bottom it said "missing: Ckancy Smyres"! Any other newspaper photo I found was too dark to be useful.

When I was writing his story, the only reason I could think has something to do with his wanting nothing to do with baseball later was that he was treated pretty lousy by the press when he came to the Dodgers. It looked like he had injured his arm and the Dodgers brought him up anyway. Durocher was not happy with his performance, and the NY press had nothing nice to say, even blaming his problems on his originally being a softball player. This was worded in a way to sound like Smyres was at fault for playing softball first. He quit pro ball after 1945.

So, his getting slapped around on his only MLB stint could have clouded his outlook on the game and made him just want to forget about it. I thought about contacting his son, but in the end I didn't want to restart any bad emotions in the family. Sometimes you just have to leave things alone.

I'd love to hear if anyone else has a theory.

Curt asked why I would want is autograph and the answer is to help complete my MLB debut autograph collection. I currently have an autograph of every player who debuted in MLB from 1946 to 2023. I am currently working on 2024

I recently decided to for 1940 to 1945 and am down to only needing 5, Clancy Smyres being one of them. I have also started working on 1934 to 1939

What makes this fun is trying to find this autograph no one realizes are so rare.

Once I completed these years it will be nearly 15,000 different players autographs.

Still looking for a Clancy Smyres Autograph, here is his signature on his draft card, wish i could find this :)

Smyres
 

I spoke with him on the phone at least a few times his name was in the directory. Cordial until the subject turned to autographs. Everyone thought after he passed the family would release something but from what I hear they are even worse. I always thought it was because he was bitter about baseball but his tombstone is a baseball theme. Go Figure
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jim@stinsonsports.com

Jim,

I read your article in SCD concerning Smyres. I'm curious as if anyone made heads or tails of why, he hated signing? I'm even more curious if his family ever divulged the secret?

I think it is interesting that his grave has him as a baseball player, so he must have loved the sport and been proud that he played.

Smyres
 

It was an is a total mystery. He was lucid in conversation and active in the community, so it was not a physical impairment. It must have been a lifetime thing because even old time collectors told me he ignored requests and none seemed to have his autograph unless it was on something unrelated to an actual autograph, I've had him twice once a cut clipped from a hotel register and another was some type of document unrelated to baseball. I've spoke to people that were in touch with the family after he passed and if there was a reason they didn't reveal it and to my knowledge never released anything that he signed despite being offered considerable compensation.
_____________________________
Always Buying Vintage Autographs
jim@stinsonsports.com