Need help to ID this 1942 baseball autograph!

[muggsy]

Gordon Pixley does make sense considering the circumstances as well. There's a good chance he would have been with PHI in ST in 1942, and never played again. It might be the first and last Pixley autograph. lol

What would be fun, is if we could find where he went and what happened with him after baseball. Eventually, we could ask him, if he's still living at 98. lol

[Steve D]

Originally Posted by muggsy

Gordon Pixley does make sense considering the circumstances as well. There's a good chance he would have been with PHI in ST in 1942, and never played again. It might be the first and last Pixley autograph. lol

What would be fun, is if we could find where he went and what happened with him after baseball. Eventually, we could ask him. lol

Unfortunately, he died in 1989 (he was born in 1916). It appears he lived his entire life in/around Elkhart, Indiana, except for his time in pro baseball, and probably the military.

Steve

[muggsy]

Yeah, I see now that the baseball pitcher, was from Elkhart. It would be the same one.

These from 1941:

Gordon Pixley, Elkhart baseball pitcher who set. a record of 27 mound victories last summer as a member of the Lake Charles (La.) team of the Evangeline League, today received a contract from the Phillies asking him to report next week at Miami Beach, Fla. Dale Atwater, local infielder, has been instructed to report to the Columbus American Association club's ramp next month at Hollywood, Fla.

The acquisition of another right handed pitcher was announced. His name is Gordon Pixley, an Elkhart, Indiana, youth, who comes to the Phillies from the Lake Charles Club of the Evangeline League. The deal was made by Doc Prothro from his Memphis home, and has been approved by President Gerry Nugent. Pixley costs the Phillies an unannounced cash emolument and a player whose name will be disclosed later. WON 26 GAMES Pixley, who is 22 years old. six feet, two inches in height and beams at 195, was the property of the Meridian Club of the Southeast League, which had him farmed out to Lake Philadelphia's own expert, Otto Reiselt. Later he also dropped the evening match to Reiselt at Allinger's.

So we found Gordon Pixley. Now if it's his signature...

[muggsy]

Steve, now you should find his kin and ask if they want to see a signature that we think could be their father/grandfather's. Or is that passing boundaries? We still have no certainty this autograph is his anyway.

So I'm hoping for more ideas. Piddy, Pixley, or other suggestions or confirmations?

[Steve D]

Originally Posted by muggsy

Steve, now you should find his kin and ask if they want to see a signature that we think could be their father/grandfather's. Or is that passing boundaries? We still have no certainty this autograph is his anyway.

So I'm hoping for more ideas. Piddy, Pixley, or other suggestions or confirmations?

I suppose you could look for anyone named Pixley in Indiana on Facebook, and see if they are related to him. That would be a better/easier avenue than trying to find any relatives on Ancestry.com, as most of that is kept private. Facebook in many cases, is also much more current, i.e., the people you'd be trying to contact would be much more likely to keep up with Facebook.

Steve

[HexsHeroes]

. . .

Gordon Pixley had a W-L record of 4-10 with Class B Allenton, in 1941 (his last year of minor league play?). ERA just under 5.0. Not numbers that one might generally expect leads to a young pitcher an invitation to Spring Training with a major league team. Still very early in WWII so lots of major league talent still available. Since 1941 appears to be his last year of professional baseball, it makes me wonder if Gordon Pixley possibly entered the armed services either in 1942 or thereabouts.

[muggsy]

Originally Posted by HexsHeroes

. . .

Gordon Pixley had a W-L record of 4-10 with Class B Allenton, in 1941 (his last year of minor league play?). ERA just under 5.0. Not numbers that one might generally expect leads to a young pitcher an invitation to Spring Training with a major league team. Still very early in WWII so lots of major league talent still available. Since 1941 appears to be his last year of professional baseball, it makes me wonder if Gordon Pixley possibly entered the armed services either in 1942 or thereabouts.

He was playing for a team affiliated with the Philadelphia Phillies at the time. It would be likely for any player under an affiliation would show up. Try-outs were relatively common too. It's not like it is now with Spring invites.
No way to know right now if he did. It doesn't even mean he played in any games, either.
Yes, it is likely he went to military service and it ended his baseball career as well.
I'm not even assuming the autograph is him. I'm looking for as many opinions to help ID it as possible. Do you have any opinion on who it COULD be? So far we only have Rixey, Priddy, Pixley, all entirely questionable.

[ATP]

Just some food for thought. I've owned a lot of these autograph albums. It's quite common that there are some oddball signatures in them that are baseball associated but not players. People like scouts, announcers, mascots, umpires, other members of the team like traveling secretary, etc. In addition, it's also common to find folks who were famous and happened to be at the game so they got the signature of them as well. And lastly, you also see random people signing the books, who aren't famous at all (or at least not to us anymore). I think you mentioned it being alone on a page? Was this the only signature that was alone on a page?

[muggsy]

If you consider the pen swipe, I think the first letter could also be a J. The letter being called an X could easily be a Y. That'd give us -iyl-

But, I think the biggest thing here we've been overlooking is why a person would only sign one name? The first letter could be a first initial? But the next don't seem to be a capital for the last name then. Or maybe it's a 1 word nickname...

And, If this is a lower level player, or someone making their first autographs, you would think it would be a more classic cursive methodical signature; especially for the time. Seems like it'd be someone who's used to signing a lot of quick autographs.