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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 CEE GEE on March 3, 2012 at 7:53am

These hats I have seen for many years...I hate to admit it but it looks pretty clean...I think a hat surface has got to be the easiest medium for a forger...

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Permalink Reply by Mikey33 on March 3, 2012 at 8:10am

Clean as in authentic? Because I can tell you 100% it's not real

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on March 3, 2012 at 3:27pm

hey Mikey33, Operation Bullpen is pretty well known with the people that subscribe here, including CEE GEE. all he was saying was that the surface of a hat seems to be easy to forge, and that the signature is clean, not authentic.

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Permalink Reply by Mikey33 on March 3, 2012 at 3:39pm

No worries, just wasn't sure what that meant, that's all. By the way, long time reader here...really some knowledgeable folks on here.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on March 4, 2012 at 7:29am

Yeah bro...I have read operation bullpen twice...Like Terrier stated....When I said it was clean I didn't meant it was authentic....Clean in the sence that it can fool an untrained eye very easy...Dimaggio's inconsistency in his auto and the surface of a wool hat that can hide tremors in an auto with a think enough silver marker makes it very hard to tell the differences...that's what I meant it looked clean...NOT authentic...Dimaggio in my opinion is far harder to pin a fake then Mantle any day of the week to me...some stick out like a sore thumb...this one on the hat like I said before is it looked "clean"...a pretty good fake I might add...

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Permalink Reply by Mikey33 on March 4, 2012 at 12:40pm

What's funny about the Operation Bullpen story is the opinion of the "snitch" in the book that Marino had such a perfect Mantle autograph. In my opinion, his Mantle was not even close to the real thing.

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Permalink Reply by Mikey33 on March 2, 2012 at 9:21pm

The "TLE" seem to be right but there is something about the whole signature that I don't like

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Permalink Reply by jn1909 on March 3, 2012 at 5:49am

Thank you for the references! I know I had uncertainty about my Ruth autograph, but viewing these I had thought that they signatures seemed a little too bold for the time....too good to be true...I feel sorry for the person that buys the black and red stitched Ruth signature...that one goes for some money!!! and the wear/fading on the signature does not look consistent with the wear and discoloration of the baseball....I'm just a complete beginner though, I have a Ruth signature that was in question also

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Permalink Reply by Lance on March 4, 2012 at 4:22am

Now back to our regularly scheduled program... see below. All within same auction....an easy way to make a 110% back from this seller! At least he/or she is confident by saying "Lifetime Guarentee Folks, These are the REAL DEAL!"

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Mickey-Mantle-Roger-Maris-Signed-Photo-Au...

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Permalink Reply by Lance on March 4, 2012 at 4:44am

More Mantle Mania below from one of our favorite auction sites... pictures will give it away whom I am referring to...

Chris Morales 100% approved authentic mantle balls (above).... get'em while they're HOT!!!

What a great 500 HR ball below... Not!

I'll pass on these beauties below...

They claim that Roger Maris added his signature to this (so called) Mantle ball (below) but show know pictures to see if the real deal... my best guess it ain't real!!