Babe Ruth?

[David Atkatz]

The other Ruth signature that Chris presented, allegedly by the "Michigan forger," shows none of Nash's three "tells." They could not be what Chris had in mind.

in another recent HoS column, Nash has presented two "tells" for mid-thirties, rushed, "ballpark" Gehrig signatures. It is a nice piece of work. But I have shown a genuine, correct-period Gehrig which exhibits one of the two. Tells are a guide--they are not ironclad.

Again, to his credit, Nash has presented an hypothesis, which can be tested. In this case I believe he is wrong.

it does not appear to me that the "a" in the ticket signature is "written backwards."

Ruth always doublebacked on the final stroke of the "h." This slight return stroke usually is horizontal, and goes over the left-to-right stroke. Usually, but not always. Nash's "arrowhead formation" appears occasionally in genuine Ruth signatures.

That leaves the short t-cross-stroke. Enough to disqualify the signature? I don't think so.