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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 CJCollector on September 19, 2012 at 4:14am

Ebay seller derikchase re-listed the above Mickey Mantle forgery and re-listed it without showing the Shop At Home COA.

Like that matters. It's still a forgery.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Signed-Baseball-Autograph-/32...

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Permalink Reply by DB on September 19, 2012 at 3:59pm

gone again; Item 320985756978 is no longer available. seems derikchase is back to coins.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on September 19, 2012 at 3:44pm

Here's another set of forgeries on a "500 Homerun Club" baseball. And look who the COA is from; Drew Max (AAU), who calls himself a FDE (Forensic Document Examiner).

Look at these pathetic set of forgeries.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/500-HR-Club-multi-signed-AAU-certified-base...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on September 23, 2012 at 7:00pm

Here are some pathetic-looking various Mickey Mantle forgeries. These are only a few of the ones listed by Ebay seller erkthebrave.

Looks like the majority of these are GAI certed forgeries (The Mike Baker Collection). These forgeries were produced in the thousands and will infect the hobby forever.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Signed-Mickey-Mantle-Duke-Snider-Willie-May...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Signed-Mickey-Mantle-Matted-Framed-Autograp...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Signed-Mickey-Mantle-B-W-Autograph-8-x-10-P...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on September 25, 2012 at 4:19pm

Here's another horrific Mickey Mantle forgery on Ebay. This horrific forgery comes with a COA from My Favorite Players.

The seller guarantees his Mickey Mantle autographed baseball will pass PSA and JSA authentication. Seriously?

The only people that will authenticate this garbage is Chris Morales, Ted Taylor, Drew Max and a few others.

This is another typical horrific Mickey Mantle forgery.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTLE-AUTOGRAPHED-MLB-BASEBALL-WITH...

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Permalink Reply by DB on September 26, 2012 at 5:28am

How can this possibly be? EBAY has made a terrible mistake; Item 300785188336 is no longer available

as it clearly says That this item was signed under the supervision of Tony Podsada of My Favorite Players, Inc.

and we all know that they would never ever never authenticate a non-authentic item! Now, where did I put my china baseball.

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Permalink Reply by DB on September 26, 2012 at 5:43am

seems there is quite of bit of negative supporting provinance on shop at home items. I don't see as much on UDA. This one currently up is an UDY20998 on Mantle. It appears to me to be okay, but I have been wrong before. Since I have some UD Ted Williams items and a Manlte from years ago somewhere around here including a Hunts have there also been issues with UD ones?

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Permalink Reply by Matt Greleski on September 29, 2012 at 10:23am

I was at an auction today where 22 baseballs were sold individually for a total of $3800. Mantle went for $500, Dimaggio for 425 and WIlliams for 400. I know how often these are faked, so I'm wondering if anyone can help me out. The Ryan went for 200.

Can anyone tell me their opinion on whether you think these are fake or not? And if fake, why? Thank you so much.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

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Permalink Reply by Matt Greleski on September 29, 2012 at 10:25am

Here is the Ryan.

Attachments: No photo uploads here

Nolan Ryan.jpg, 242 KB

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on September 29, 2012 at 11:34am

Mantle, Williams and DiMaggio are all slowly drawn fakes. Common, mass-produced forgery styles seen throughout this thread.

Not sure on the Ryan because it's not a sig I have studied closely. Wondering why anyone would pay $200 for a Ryan when you can buy them directly from Ryan's own web site for $80 and the proceeds go to his charity.