[JimStinson]

Am New to the forum and Since my name was mentioned in this Thread I thought I would chime in. Regarding Williams and his autograph, His early signature (Pre Military Service) Bore almost no likeness to the Williams signature that most collectors would become used to seeing. The earliest Teddy Ballgame signatures I've owned have been a 1937 San Diego Padres team signed ball, which Williams actually wanted for his Museum when he lived in North Central Florida and I lived in Ocala. Later I owned and eventually sold three Ted Williams LONG handwritten letters written to one of his neighbors on Utah Street in San Diego in 1938 when Ted was playing for Minneapolis before his first major league at bat. And lastly a 1939 Boston Red Sox IN-PERSON team sheet signed by the entire team including Williams and signed only a month or so after his first major league at bat. All match perfectly with the 1941 signed card mentioned in this thread and are also consistent with any other PRE WW II Williams items I've seen. he spent four years in military service and it was upon his return that his signature began to evolve into the signature that most collectors are familiar with from his baseball card show days in the 1980's until his death. By his own admission he freely used a "Clubhouse" employee to sign his name on many team balls and through the mail autograph requests recieved via the club during baseball season but by most accounts this did not begin until the late 1940's. Which would account for some of the wide variations of signatures originating from the 1950's. After he retired from baseball and even as far back as the 1970's and 1980's when he was living in Islamorada in the Florida Keys he was signing and answering mail requests for his autograph as evidenced by the image I attached which I recieved through the mail around 1984 postmarked from Islamorada almost a year after I had requested his signature on the photo and sase I provided. If the autograph on this photo or ANY of his 1980's 1990's card show signed items and the pre WW II signatures of Teddy Ballgame were placed side by side there would be almost no resemblance what so ever. Yet they were signed by the same person.