Nolan Ryan 7/30/90 300th win

[certainteed52]

Durwood Merrill died on 1/11/2003 he has 13 years to correct this ball he has in his collection so that make me think that something must have happened for him to keep it in his collection!

[doug.goodman]

Originally Posted by certainteed52

Durwood Merrill died on 1/11/2003 he has 13 years to correct this ball he has in his collection so that make me think that something must have happened for him to keep it in his collection!

I'll bet he didn't even know about the mistake.

As somebody who sometimes spends months in a row on tour, I can completely see where those involved were wrong about the date when it happened.

When you spend that much time traveling from city to city, it's easy to forget the exact date and the exact day.

Doug

[Scott Garner]

Hi Certainteed52,

Welcome to net54!
As many on net54 know, I have been an advanced collector of Nolan Ryan since 1972.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Durwood Merrill sold many balls surrounding the months prior to his death that several people in the hobby, including myself, question as being authentic.

The inaccurate date in the inscription on the ball is one issue, which as Doug Goodman mentioned, probably was simply a matter of Merrill forgetting to write the correct date.

More important is the fact that Durwood Merrill did not work in the umpire crew during Nolan Ryan's 300th win game on July 31, 1990.
FYI, the umpire crew that night were Al Clark (who went to prison for selling fake balls to this game, Roger Clemens' 20 K game in 1986 and Cal Ripken's 2131 game), John Hirschbeck, Rocky Roe and Dave Philllips.

I recall an auction that Mike Gutierrez had during the time prior to Merrill's death in 2003 that featured many balls that Merrill claimed were game used balls related to many historic baseball games including stating that some were home run balls. I wondered how an umpire could come to own homerun balls from a game? To Mike G.'s credit, he was forthcoming and did provide Durwood Merrill's home phone number in TX to me and former baseball hobbiest and current composer/author Seth Swirsky. Merrill was affable and claimed that all of these balls were "gifted" to him while he was an AL umpire.

If you take everyone's word at face value, that's fine, but as an excellent rule of thumb, common sense and caution should be used when considering authenticity and provenance.... Just sayin'

[packs]

Kinda strange the inscription and auto aren't in the same pen.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by packs

Kinda strange the inscription and auto aren't in the same pen.

The inscription is in the hand of Durwood Merrill. Ryan signed at a separate time with a different pen.

[packs]

I guess what I meant to say was the signature looks to be under the spotting while the inscription looks to be on top of it, so I think the real question is how did he tie the ball to the game? Unless he only ever got one from Nolan.

[Scott Garner]

Originally Posted by packs

I guess what I meant to say was the signature looks to be under the spotting while the inscription looks to be on top of it, so I think the real question is how did he tie the ball to the game? Unless he only ever got one from Nolan.

The inference was he got it from the umpire crew that worked the game.
But, IMHO this is pretty sketchy provenance because of the indirect (instead of direct) link to the game, plus a HP umpire which was a prosecuted felon and did prison time for faking "game balls" from this game and other historic games.

[certainteed52]

Originally Posted by Scott Garner

Hi Certainteed52,

Welcome to net54!
As many on net54 know, I have been an advanced collector of Nolan Ryan since 1972.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Durwood Merrill sold many balls surrounding the months prior to his death that several people in the hobby, including myself, question as being authentic.

The inaccurate date in the inscription on the ball is one issue, which as Doug Goodman mentioned, probably was simply a matter of Merrill forgetting to write the correct date.

More important is the fact that Durwood Merrill did not work in the umpire crew during Nolan Ryan's 300th win game on July 31, 1990.
FYI, the umpire crew that night were Al Clark (who went to prison for selling fake balls to this game, Roger Clemens' 20 K game in 1986 and Cal Ripken's 2131 game), John Hirschbeck, Rocky Roe and Dave Philllips.

I recall an auction that Mike Gutierrez had during the time prior to Merrill's death in 2003 that featured many balls that Merrill claimed were game used balls related to many historic baseball games including stating that some were home run balls. I wondered how an umpire could come to own homerun balls from a game? To Mike G.'s credit, he was forthcoming and did provide Durwood Merrill's home phone number in TX to me and former baseball hobbiest and current composer/author Seth Swirsky. Merrill was affable and claimed that all of these balls were "gifted" to him while he was an AL umpire.

If you take everyone's word at face value, that's fine, but as an excellent rule of thumb, common sense and caution should be used when considering authenticity and provenance.... Just sayin'

Hi Scott, So are you saying that some of the AL umpire may have been in some type of collusion like AL Clark!