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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 Mikey33 on March 7, 2012 at 12:26pm

God that is an awful forgery

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on March 8, 2012 at 4:50am

THESE 2 ARE 1 STYLE (BANANA SHAPPED M)

THESE ARE MORE EXAMPLES...

I THINK THIS ONE MAY BE THE SAME HAND AS THE TOP BUT IT WAS ALSO PART OF THAT RING THAT IS IN THE 10 OF THOUSANDS STILL IN THE MARKET...REGUARDLESS OF WHO PENNED THEM THESE ARE THE STYLES TO LOOK FOR...I CAN SPOT THESE BLINDFOLDED...LOL

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on March 8, 2012 at 5:08am

You're right, Cee Gee, there are literally hundreds of thousands of this crap that will be in the hobby forever. The only way to get rid of them is to burn them. But that will never happen because when those that own that garbage discover that what they have is worthless, they will try to dump it somewhere. That's why it's great that we continue to post this crap even if it is redundant.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 8, 2012 at 6:07am

and since I don't want you cee gee having all the fun here is another possible "marino" Mantle I've had in the "questionable pile" that I've been looking for. Since it "was signed in the presence" of a well known sports promoter here in Mass., (who for the moment will remain out of print till we chat) I ought to be able to nail down which forger signed it;

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 8, 2012 at 8:32am

speaking of this one... what pattern out of NJ might this have fit say six or seven years (approx) back in time? Is it clear enough ror people to see?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 8, 2012 at 8:58am

DB,

I'm sure that autograph was "signed in the presence" of a well known sports promoter. Probably after August 1995.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 17, 2012 at 3:49am

Me Too - although COAs have a way of growing legs.

Thus, we concur this is not an authentic mantle, correct?

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 17, 2012 at 10:24am

So, to finish the end game on this. (may become it's own thread) Just discussed this in detail with the promoter at the Blackstone where an exchange was done. Kevin Huard, Yesterdays Legends took 5 seconds to confirm it was not-authentic. In response to how his coa signed by him (below) grew legs and was attached - "it's a copy from an original one done when he had a Mantle signing". I have been to a number of Huard's Legend shows & signings and they have always been above board. However, it seems some vendors who move pieces at these shows aren't always uncovered in a timely manner with the garbage alongside the good stuff.

My issue was simply then Police your shows on who is selling your items since he doesn't typically set up a booth.

Thus, if anyone has a COA that looks like this related to Mantle (especially Mantle as there could be some CALIF pieces floating around) you ought to have them posted or confirmed for authenticity. Since this show was several years ago it's hard to nail down the vendor involved.

.the cynic in me wonders about this but the exchange for a Bruin Hockey great will make my Bruin fanatic happy that came from a recent signing so Kevin corrects the problem when they exist from my viewpoint at the moment.