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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 February 17, 2013 at 9:00am

Another typical Mickey Mantle forgery from "Florida."

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller amyrn35.

This Mantle forgery comes with two bogus COAs: YMC Sports and Myst-O-Graph. Other related COAs from "Florida" include Nicholas Burczyk, MFP Reborn, My Favorite Players and others.

I have no sympathy for the people that buy this crap from a local charity, local auction, estate sale, etc. These people are simply looking to flip this garbage on EBay for a profit. Then later on they scream for their money back.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Autographed-Photo-with-COA-Ni...

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on February 17, 2013 at 9:33am

Here's another Ass clown... e-bay seller samrocks1001 should be Samrocksforbrains1001

comes with 2 COAs Birsick & YMC

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380580532583...

as Howard Stern's Father would say "Sit Down, Shut up." I told you not to be stupid you moron"

When I told him that his item was a well known clear cut forgery.... dope replies back..."And it has a PSA authentication" people are so stupid it hurts my belly from laughing.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on February 17, 2013 at 10:27am

Another piece-of-crap Mickey Mantle forgery.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller 7msports. Seller 7msports that they have owned this Mantle for 20 years.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MICKEY-MANTLE-AUTOGRAPHED-1956-TRIPLE-CROWN...

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Permalink Reply by Fuddjcal on February 17, 2013 at 12:43pm

The guy 7Msports seems like a good seller though his head is as hard as a coconut.

He's going to call E-bay and get to the bottom of it. LOL. Poor Guy got mad at me when I directed him to this site and called him lazy for not doing his research. He stated he's been collecting for 50 years and bought this from a reputable dealer in Philly 20 years ago...for those of you who actually want to learn here is the same pose with an authentic signature. FOR THE RECORD....IT LOOKS NOTHING LIKE THE MESS from seller 7Msports.

Maybe when you call E-bay and have them get to the bottom of it and my e-mails you can direct them here so you can stop with the sour grapes already. It comes from a "Smokefree" environment" but should be put into a fireplace...a smokey environment.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on February 17, 2013 at 12:50pm

Get to "The bottom of what?" Too funny.

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Permalink Reply by Rick Meyer on February 17, 2013 at 12:55pm

"should be put into a fireplace...a smokey environment"

Classic......LMAO

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on February 17, 2013 at 2:44pm

Here's another typical Mickey Mantle forgery with a COA from Autographed Legends, LLC (Nicholas Burczyk, Myst-O-Graph, MFP Reborn, YMC Sports, etc).

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by Ebay seller sprintfan45 who has a "Buy It Now" for only $50.00. Looks like they are looking to dump their Mantle forgery quickly.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Autographed-Legends-LLC-Mickey-Mantle-Autog...

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on February 17, 2013 at 2:57pm

Only $350.00 for this ugly Mickey Mantle forgery.

This Mickey Mantle forgery is listed by EBay seller j42886.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on February 17, 2013 at 2:57pm

One of my sisters goes to garage sales to scope out deals. She called me yesterday from one, because the guy had signed photos of Muhammad Ali, and some of the baseball forger favorites. I don't recall Mantle among the names she mentioned. I told her not to buy them, of course.

Today she emailed me to say that the seller said we know each other...and Shelley said to say hi.

It was Shelley Jaffe.