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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 DB on March 7, 2012 at 6:58pm

absolutely, it's like a hockey game and I would love to check a few into the boards and I hope vice versa and we'll see who is standing but... when the final period ends, u hang up the gloves, skates and pads and have a gusto!

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 7, 2012 at 7:03pm

Ask DB.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 7, 2012 at 7:14pm

WD40.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 7, 2012 at 6:01pm

as do I :-) opps, ...into revealing anything sensitive just because you have a need to know

as I believe Collectors have a need to know the FACTS., not your unsubstantiated views of the facts!

and frankly don't insult me or try to snow the snowman on what was going on with ebay & the banned list!

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on March 7, 2012 at 6:14pm

I have no idea what you mean by "and frankly don't insult me or try to snow the snowman on what was going on with ebay & the banned list!"

All I know is that it was irresponsible of you to write that information before it was actually embedded on Ebay's website.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 7, 2012 at 6:08pm

DB,

You're right: collectors definitely need the facts so they know what to avoid.

But being an editor and publisher—a "defunct" print editor and publisher ;)—I can tell you from first hand experience that it's rare for every example to make it into a book, even a reference book. And in the case of "Operation Bullpen," the book was about the people and what happened. It's not a reference book and never was intended to be one.

Kevin Nelson is an author and a reporter—and a damned good one. That he even thought of writing about Operation Bullpen was a blessing to collectors everywhere. He isn't an authenticator, and I don't know if he can even tell a Marino forgery (sorry if you can, Kevin).

Look at you...look at me. Heck, I'm the owner of a publication on autographs and outside of certain rock and very obvious forgeries, I couldn't tell a forgery that we hadn't covered in "Autograph."

Fellow members of this site, collectors and dealers, have advanced the knowledge and expertise of many of us here by a factor of, what...10 or more?...in the past two and a half years Autograph Magazine Live! has been around.

When you joined Live! you were still buying from Autograph Store, right?

This is a long way of saying that I think it's important to question, but I think it's just as important not to make people go through hoops when they give their opinions. The truth usually comes out here pretty quickly. Much quicker than it comes out in the collecting community overall.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 7, 2012 at 6:18pm

nice backhand cyrkin; "When you joined Live! you were still buying from Autograph Store, right"

but you forgot to mention, Steiner, MM, UD, and even R&R so what do i Know! However, since coming here it has been an edumacation so much so received this accolade;

.. just wanted to take a moment to thank you for all you have done for the eBay Community. - redacted - however it is people like you that make it all worthwhile.///

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 7, 2012 at 6:24pm

NOT a backhand, DB. What you just said is really important. You bought from a lot of reputable sources. But you also bought from Autograph Store. And if it wasn't for the members here, you wouldn't have known there was a problem with Autograph Store until you tried to sell...right?

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 7, 2012 at 6:31pm

No, I don't sell and of all people u should know that! Incidently, the people that some of which I have learned from have now been banished to ANaL except for Aring who was only gone a short while. Except for a small few and Epperson who provided insight there are exceptionally few that opine on modern entertainment unless they are promoting their auctions. And I have a few GAIs that are authentic as well...

We collectors have to know the facts not "what I do or make insinuations that because we are not on UTUBE, we are unimportant".

If there is a problem with an illustration one doesn't run around going "i know something u don't know and I'm not going to tell you". Only pompous Pi$$ Ants or cartoon characters use that red herring approach.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 7, 2012 at 6:49pm

DB,

That's my point...I know you don't sell. You bought from a lot of great sources. If I wasn't clear about that, I apologize.

My point was that you bought from great sources, and at least one worrisome one. You wouldn't have known about the worrisome one as soon as you did if it weren't for AML members.

And you're right: We need more people to opine on modern entertainment. Hollywood mostly...we're pretty well covered on music, but more is always welcome.

YOU are not unimportant! You've proven yourself to be very important. I just don't want so much conflict that legitimate discussions are avoided.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on March 7, 2012 at 7:02pm

DB, no one here wrote that you were unimportant. But the comments you post sometimes make me think that you are here more for your ego than anything else.

And there is a lot that I know that I can't tell you. That's just the way it is. There are friends of mine in the hobby that possess information that they can't pass along to me and I possess information that I cannot pass along to them. All of us respect each other for that.

And I certainly did not insinuate that because you didn't do any YouTube videos that you are unimportant. That's your own insides talking, not me insinuating anything.