Newbie questions: Signed balls: 1930 A's, unknown sig c. 1975

[Darner]

Hi everyone:

New member here so first of all, thanks for letting me join the forum. I've been a baseball fan since I was a kid but until recently haven't collected much. But with three boys starting t-ball and little league, my interest has grown. A couple of years ago one of my boys got his first MLB ball during batting practice and like any kid in any era of the game he was incredibly excited and it all came back to me.

I've been collecting vintage baseballs - different league presidents, different leagues, commemoratives, but not a lot of autographed material. Recently I bought two balls together on ebay. The seller wasn't a sports dealer so didn't list anything in the description except the name "Earnshaw." The balls aren't in great shape but I only paid a couple of bucks for them.

The first ball is a blue and red stitch American League baseball with a Barnard league president stamp. There is a George Earnshaw signature on the sweetspot with what looks like a badly faded Connie Mack signature underneath it. On one of the other panels I can make out Spencer Harris who was only on the Philadelphia Athletics in 1930. Underneath Harris seems to be Bing Miller. I can't really make out any other signatures and at some point some genius scrubbed half the ball away which is a real shame. My question is, can something this beat up be authenticated and secondly, would it be worth it? The Mack signature seems iffy to me and in any case would cost a hundred bucks just for PSA to look at it. I know the ball itself has a little value and a connection with a world series champion would help it but the condition is pretty poor.

The second ball is a MacPhail American League ball with a Spalding label dating it around 1975-76. There is what I think is a period Rollie Fingers and a Bobby Bonds signature plus another one I can't figure out. I need help with that one and whether or not the others seem legit.

Thanks!
Ed

[dgo71]

The sig on the newer ball is Bowie Kuhn.

[MooseDog]

Kuhn is correct as are Fingers and Bonds.

Can't really make out the Mack but the one under Spencer is definitely Bing Miller.

IMO not worth paying the PSA tax unless you plan to sell, even then you may not recover the cost of the cert, given the ball's condition.

[Darner]

Thanks, dgo71 and MooseDog for the identification. With Fingers and Bonds I was thinking there was some Bay area connection so I wouldn't have come up with Kuhn.

I'll probably just keep the 1930 ball for a while and hold off authenticating it. Back in October an arguably rougher Barnard sold on Ebay for $260 so beauty's in the eye of the beholder. I'm happy having something from a champion Athletics team (I grew up in Philly) plus I only paid $7.28 for the balls.