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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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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on January 13, 2013 at 5:17pm
The Ryan ball is also in that category
Permalink Reply by CJCollector on January 13, 2013 at 6:28pm

Check out this set of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Duke Snider forgeries.

This set of forgeries is listed by EBay seller texaszebra2.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Willie-Mays-Duke-Snider-Autog...

Click on the images to get a closer view.

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on January 15, 2013 at 8:26pm

Here's another Mickey Mantle forgery with the "No 7" inscription.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller wholesalejim.

This is one horrific Mickey Mantle forgery being sold by EBay seller wholesalejim.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=271139265838...

Click on images to get a closer view.

Permalink Reply by Michael Wagner on January 17, 2013 at 4:47pm
With pictures and pricing like this, how can we go wrong...

http://nashville.craigslist.org/clt/3535431412.html
Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on January 17, 2013 at 5:17pm

Classic illiterate scammer story for this "Mickie Mantle" signed ball:

Here's the history story!!!!! I bought from a man whose great-great grandfather went to this game as a kid. It was a charity benefit game and featured retired career stars. They were issued a uniform and number they had to wear. This isn't Mickie Mantles career number nor is it his federation he played under! The great-great grandfather went through the line twice to have his hero sign it again.
As far as forgery??? I think if this was fake the forger would have had the right federation and at the very least sign it with Mickie Mantles real career number! Anyway - I bought the story and now it is up to you!

WTF is the "federation"? Does he think "Mickie Mantle" was a character in Star Trek?

Permalink Reply by Null on January 18, 2013 at 7:00am

"Anyway - I bought the story and now it is up to you!" LMAOOO. I love how the photos show absolutely NOTHING. What a moron.

Permalink Reply by Mike T on January 18, 2013 at 8:07am

I've seen clearer pictures of bigfoot.  You can find some really good stuff on craigslist, and some really comical stuff as well.

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on January 18, 2013 at 3:30pm

Here's a another Mickey Mantle forgery from the 1990's.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller fordhamgbdavid.

EBay seller fordhamgbdavid claims the below Mickey Mantle "signature" will pass PSA and JSA.  Not in a thousand years.   Thousands of the below horrific Mickey Mantle forgery were produced.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Single-Signed-Autographed-Bob...

Click on the images to get a closer view.

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on January 18, 2013 at 7:36pm

Here's another set of Mickey Mantle and Ted Williams forgeries.

This set of forgeries is "authenticated" by Drew Max (AAU) who calls himself a FDE.

Thousands of this set of horrific forgeries have been produced. 

This set of forgeries is listed by Ebay seller "lubz12."

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330860406321...

Permalink Reply by Steve on January 18, 2013 at 7:48pm

Hurry, bid on this one before it's too late.  This is a contender for worst mantle ever!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Autographed-Baseball-By-Mickey-Mantle-COA-N...

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on January 19, 2013 at 6:37am

Here's another Mickey Mantle forgery with a COA from "B&J Collectibles."

"B&J Collectibles" was a major distributor of forgeries during the "Operation Bullpen" era.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller "rhoadester72."

Only $799.85 for this piece-of-crap.

Can anyone guess who penned this Mantle forgery?  It's obvious.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=251215894213...

Permalink Reply by CJCollector on January 19, 2013 at 7:05am

I just write a blog on the below seller of the below ugly Mickey Mantle forgery.

The seller's Ebay ID is "lreyes559."  The entire story will be posted as soon as Mr. Cyrkin "approves" my blog.

First, here is the Mickey Mantle forgery listed by Ebay seller "lreyes559."  This Mantle forgery was listed last night by Ebay seller "bigjoe93257." 

After Ebay removed all of their auctions, the seller created a new Ebay ID named "lreyes559" and re-listed all of their forgeries.  Their forgeries are all penned by the same hand.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Autographed-Baseball-By-Mickey-Mantle-COA-N...

Below are screen shots of both listings.  Click on the images to get a closer view.

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