1930's Debut Year Baseball Autographs, MOST RARE

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

The chances of illiteracy would unfortunately have been greater with African Americans just due to so much less afforded to them 100+ years ago. Just an uncomfortable truth.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

To be clear, there must have been some Major Leaguers from that era who were functionally illiterate beyond signing their names and perhaps a few basic other words.

Sometimes, what you see isn't always what you get. I recall seeing the autograph of a man named Jerry Standaert for the first time many years ago. During his playing days, he had signed a 3X5 in 1929 and also added "Boston Red Soxs" (actual spelling). It appeared to have taken him half an hour to write these things; lots of stops and starts in strange places, almost between every letter. Clearly, based on all of this, one would surmise that Mr. Standaert had to be pretty close to illiterate.

Some years later, I unearthed an impressively large trove of handwritten player questionnaires from the 1920's that were gathering dust in a library. I drove over ten hours specifically to check all of these out. There was one from Standaert. In a slightly less labored hand (and in pencil, which maybe he was more comfortable using), he wrote an entire page of words. It should be noted there were no spelling mistakes, either.

Later on, I also discovered a questionnaire that one of his relatives had completed for a baseball researcher after his death. He is listed as having a 10th grade education.

Then, there is the truly perplexing. Take the case of Champ Osteen. He signed his WWI draft registration with an X mark, yet I know that he was literate, could sign his name and had two years of college education! Furthermore, while 99+% of these documents were filled out by someone else, then signed at the bottom by the player, this one certainly appears to have been filled out by Osteen himself! And I am not even sure what's going on with the fact that someone else signed their name at the bottom, then it was crossed out and signed by Osteen. Attached is also a much later Osteen signed 3X5. While the infirmities of age definitely affected some letter formations, the similarities in many of them speak for themselves (compare with the "James Champ Osteen" at the top of the document). Right down to placing dots in strange places! "James. Champ" and "Champ. Osteen.". I think I even see a faint dot between Champ and Osteen on the draft card. Figure all of that out! I sure can't. Maybe he had a strange sense of humor in signing with an X? Maybe he was trying to claim illiteracy in an effort to not be drafted? Either way, he was 41 years old when he signed the document, so his chances of having to serve were not really even an issue.

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

The chances of illiteracy would unfortunately have been greater with African Americans just due to so much less afforded to them 100+ years ago. Just an uncomfortable truth.

Perhaps, but there also would have been a relatively larger pool of poor whites who grew up in equally hard-scrabble circumstances as many of the black players, i.e. on tenant farms, in mining communities, etc., places where kids never went to school or left at very young ages to go to work. And given that the country was 90% white at the time, I would surmise that the number of white illiterate ballplayers would have far exceeded the number of black illiterate ballplayers.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

Perhaps, but there also would have been a relatively larger pool of poor whites who grew up in equally hard-scrabble circumstances as many of the black players, i.e. on tenant farms, in mining communities, etc., places where kids never went to school or left at very young ages to go to work. And given that the country was 90% white at the time, I would surmise that the number of white illiterate ballplayers would have far exceeded the number of black illiterate ballplayers.

What you say certainly makes a lot of sense. We unfortunately will only be able to speculate on this as opposed to ever being able to offer the world anything concrete. There are so many Negro Leaguers for whom full basic data is missing. Common names, no middle names on file, let alone DOB/DOD...the picture will likely never be fully formed for every NL'er.

Conversely, we do have a full list of MLB players from this 1920's-30's era. While there will continuously be fine tweaking of some of this data until the end of time, we generally know where and when they were all born and passed away. On top of that, over more than 30 years, I have collected post-baseball career info (their lines of work) and causes of death for almost all from this period. As noted, they were all capable of signing their names and I am certain I've seen all of their autographs in my years of doing this. I've also owned the vast majority of them at some point in time, albeit not all at once! Again, I do want to make room for the fact that a scant name or two could possibly be escaping me; like the rest of us, my memory is not as razor-sharp as it was in my youth!

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

What you say certainly makes a lot of sense. We unfortunately will only be able to speculate on this as opposed to ever being able to offer the world anything concrete. There are so many Negro Leaguers for whom full basic data is missing. Common names, no middle names on file, let alone DOB/DOD...the picture will likely never be fully formed for every NL'er. Conversely, we do have a full list of MLB players from this 1920's-30's era. While there will continuously be fine tweaking of some of this data until the end of time, we generally know where and when they were all born and passed away. On top of that, over more than 30 years, I have collected post-baseball career info (their lines of work) and causes of death for almost all from this period. As noted, they were all capable of signing their names and I am certain I've seen all of their autographs in my years of doing this. I've also owned the vast majority of them at some point in time, albeit not all at once! Again, I do want to make room for the fact that a scant name or two could possibly be escaping me; like the rest of us, my memory is not as razor-sharp as it was in my youth!

I grew up thinking that marking one's name with an "X" was not an uncommon thing, but it seems from what you say that it was rare indeed. Instead of Joe Jackson just being the most prominent of players unable to sign or only with great difficulty, he was actually one of the very few. Thanks for the information.

[Brent G.]

Very interesting that things have come full circle: Many modern ballplayers -- more and more as time passes -- have no idea how to sign their name due to the removal of cursive writing from education, and indecipherable squiggles now serve as signatures/autographs.

[gonefishin]

Question for those that collect autographs, does anyone have a want list or rare autographs for other sports such as basketball, football, etc.?

[prewarsports]

There are collectors trying to get the members of their respective Halls of Fame (basketball, football, college football, hockey etc.) but I am not aware of anyone trying to get a signature of EVERYONE from any sport aside from baseball.