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Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio: Authenticating Baseball Forger Favorites

It is unquestionable that Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio have been American sports icons since the mid-20th century. It comes as no surprise that these three have been favorites of autograph collectors since the advent of autograph and card shows in the 1980’s. Unfortunately it is equally unsurprising, as attested to in the FBI’s famous 1990s Operation Bullpen, that they are also the three most forged sports autographs. Although most experts believe the forgery problem in sports memorabilia has lessoned tremendously since Operation Bullpen (estimated at that time to be “between $500,000,000 and $900,000,000” by the FBI), sadly large numbers of forged material still exist.

While it would require far more than a single article to educate the autograph collector to detect Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio forgeries, there are some general as well as specific warning keys to these three autographs that may aid in detecting possible forgeries.

Genuine Mantle, Williams & DiMaggio signed photo provided by EAC Gallery.
Click to enlarge:

As a general rule, one of the first things I examine in an autograph is its feel – how it was written. When an individual signs his name there should be an easy, smooth flow to the signature. We’ve all signed our names countless times, and we don’t need to think about it. An item we offered in one of our past auctions was a sheet of paper signed several times by Joe Jackson. Jackson, who was almost completely illiterate, actually had to practice, in essence work at, writing his name prior to signing documents. Likewise, when a forger writes a signature, he or she is working at it and therefore upon close examination it’s often possible to detect such warning keys as a slowness of motion, stops and starts at inappropriate spots, and possibly even a shakiness in the writing. An invaluable aid to help detect these keys, taught to me by John Reznikoff of University Archives many years ago, is to turn the autograph upside down. When you view an autograph in an unnatural position these warning keys are often easier to detect.

In addition to such general warning keys there are specific warning keys, unique to an individual’s autograph, to keep an eye out for.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s Mickey Mantle stated on numerous occasions that he was blessed to be able to earn more money signing his name at one single weekend show than his father had earned in an entire year working as a coal miner. Because of this Mantle always felt his fans were deserving of a clear, elegant signature. In authentic Mickey Mantle autographs Mickey would always end the “y” in “Mickey” on an upswing, and because he would be quickly flowing through his signature, he therefore started the “M” in “Mantle” on a higher level or plane than he had started the “M” in “Mickey”. Most forgers, because they were “working” on writing Mantle’s signature, would pause after completing “Mickey” and begin anew in writing “Mantle”, therefore placing “Mantle” on more of a straight line with “Mickey”. If one places a ruler or sheet of paper straight across the item Mantle signed (not straight across the signature) all that appears below the ruler or paper of an authentic Mantle is the bottom portion of the “M” in “Mickey”. In the case of most forgeries the ruler or paper completely covers the entire signature. Another difficulty forgers have with Mantle’s signature was his unique way of looping the bottom portion of his “M”. Such curved lines were executed in one easy movement by Mantle, but are most often elongated by forgers who again are “working” the signature. Such slow, elongated forgeries are especially easy to recognize on baseballs as their curved surfaces only add to the forger’s difficulty.

In the case of Ted Williams autographs, with the exception of the capital “W” in Williams, Ted would consistently make the size of all the letters in his last time nearly the same exact size. Most telling is the “illia”, with the “l”s just ever so slightly taller than the “i”s, and the “a” as tall as the “l”s. Try as they may, most forgers simply can’t undo years of training and habit causing their “l”s to be significantly taller than their “i”s, and their “a” significantly shorter than their “l”s. Williams also connected the “W” in “Williams” to the “ed” in “Ted” with a swirl that gave forgers difficulty in replicating in the same, easy, flowing movement as appears in authentic examples. Also of interest, in addition to the many Williams intentional forgeries in existence, Williams revealed late in his life that during his playing days his signature on team signed balls was often a “clubhouse” example, not penned by him.

Regarding Joe DiMaggio’s autograph, problems for forgers begin with the first letter in Joe. Like the “M”s in Mantle’s autograph, the “J” in “Joe”, which appears as two loops, a larger loop on top and a smaller one below, were created by curved lines which are the hardest to duplicate without leaving telltale signs of slowness or inappropriate stops and starts. In addition, DiMaggio would pen his “J”s so that the lower loop would be written on top of (literally written over) the upper loop in two places. For some inexplicable reason, a significant percentage of DiMaggio forgeries flow in the opposite direction, with the upper loop covering the lower one. An inexpensive magnifier or jeweler’s loop will aid in viewing this detail. Finally, the general feel of an authentic DiMaggio autograph is often somewhat sloppy, in the sense that the spacing between letters is uneven, obviously much more so in his second name. Again due to the fact that forgers are working rather than simply signing, the spacing they place between each letter is far more uniform.

Finally, the age-old adage “experience is the best teacher” is indeed appropriate here. The building of as extensive a library of exemplars as possible, of both authentic and fake examples, would be of help to visualize these and additional warning keys, and tremendously assist in the detection of forgeries.

Tags: authenticate, baseball, dimaggio, fame, forgeries, forgers, genuine, hall, hof, joe, More…mantle, mickey, of, ted, williams

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Permalink Reply by GilR on November 13, 2021 at 2:30pm

I am a new member and have a question, and this thread seems the right place for it. I have a Ted Williams autographed baseball that may or may not be genuine, and want to get your thoughts about it. I recently had to remove from my parents' house the collection of baseball cards and autographs that I put together as a teenager around 1986-1990, and am starting to sell a few items -- and, having returned to the hobby after thirty years, I've discovered the importance of first having cards graded and autographs authenticated. Here is the situation with this baseball, and why I am asking forum members for their insights.

Around 1986 or 1987 I decided to try to have a ball signed by all living members of the 500 homer club and, instead of starting from scratch, while at an autographs and cards show I bought a Ted Williams baseball which I then got signed by Willie Mays, Ernie Banks and Harmon Killebrew. So it has three autographs that I know are genuine, but at some point I learned about autographs being forged, and have always wondered about this Williams signature. If I knew for certain it's legitimate I would want to have all four signatures authenticated and put the ball on the market (while keeping other autographed baseballs that I got from those three in person). Since the raw cost of authenticating a Williams autographed ball is $75, plus there are associated expenses, that's a pretty big gamble to take without knowing more.

I have spent a good two hours or so online doing a deep dive into the world of Williams authenticated signatures and forgeries (using this thread, PSA's webpage on the subject, photos of numerous authenticated balls on eBay, and other online discussions), and now know enough that I was able to spot a clear fake going for $300 on eBay, but I'm still uncertain about this one. Here is my thinking, and I would very much like to get yours based on the photo I'm uploading:

* I can find no signature that it matches precisely, though most of the letters are quite close to those in numerous authenticated signatures.
* Each of the letters that looks different from the ones in Williams's standard autograph has at least one parallel out there. In other words, while the signature as a whole doesn't match any I could find, each component does have a genuine match.
* The biggest argument against authenticity is the 's', since pretty much every Williams signature ends with a diagonal, downwards line that goes below the rest of the 's'. However, there is a signed personal check on PSA's Ted Williams webpage -- the "1983 Ted Williams Signed Check" at https://www.psacard.com/autographfacts/baseball/ted-williams/images/46 -- that shows an 's' like the one in the photo, so it's not impossible, and the overall shape of the 's' is about right. Moreover, if this is a forgery then it seems a rather good one, and a good forger would have to know about getting the 's' right -- which, perversely, seems a solid argument for authenticity. After all, there's no reason why Williams, having been signing dozens if not hundreds of balls at a show, might not have eased up a little when reaching the end of this one. (My memory could be faulty, but I have a hazy recollection of the dealer who sold me this ball saying he had had it signed by Williams at a recent autograph appearance. If so, as a dealer he would have had Williams sign a number of balls one after the other, so Williams might have been a bit less careful about getting each one perfect.)
* The 'T' ends with a horizontal line that normally goes through the 'e', but here goes just above it, which is unusual.
* The 'm' is formed strangely, but there are other examples that are similar to it.
* The 'i' in most Williams signatures normally begins a bit above the line and then descends before going up, but there are several examples that instead look like this.

So, is there something that makes this clearly a forgery, or does it clearly look genuine? Or, does it look genuine enough that it's worth the $100+ to have a professional take a look? And, if it's either deemed a definite forgery or PSA is too uncertain to state it is authentic, am I right that this renders the other autographs valueless?

I'm sorry about the long post, but want to be as well informed as I can be. Plus after all of the time I've spent studying this and other signatures that spell out "Ted Williams" I find it an interesting subject, regardless of whether the ball is worth $500 or $5. Thank you for reading all this, and for any thoughts you might wish to share.

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Permalink Reply by GilR on November 14, 2021 at 12:06pm

It turns out that I have an additional question for this thread, which strikes me as the perfect place to act. Back in 1987, having read somewhere that some retired baseball players might be more likely to sign positive newspaper articles than just photos or baseball cards, I clipped a New York Times article about Joe DiMaggio that had a great photo of him and mailed it him. A few weeks later it came back with a great signature. Does anyone know whether DiMaggio around that time would have had someone else signing for him, or can I be confident that it's genuine? It's the best autograph in my collection, assuming it is indeed real. Thanks!

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Permalink Reply by Don Dougherty on May 26, 2022 at 2:14pm

Dear sir, I was hoping you could send me a picture of the trick with the ruler or paper when checking out Mantle autographs my email is Donnienotoes@aol.com. thanks