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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 July 30, 2012 at 8:23am

This listing (150867630855) has been removed, or this item is not available. - TOO LATE

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on July 30, 2012 at 8:24am

We don't have to worry about it being sold on Ebay. It's been removed.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on August 1, 2012 at 6:32am

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-Autographed-8X10-Photo-with-G...

THIS LOOKS VERY FISHY TO ME...I HAVE SEEN THIS STYLE BEFORE AND IT IS VERY CONVINCING...BUT IAM ALMOST POSITIVE ITS FAKE...

ANY THOUGHTS ?

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on August 1, 2012 at 6:37am

Hi CeeGee. That's an authentic Mickey Mantle autograph.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on August 1, 2012 at 6:46am

Thanks Chris...

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on August 1, 2012 at 9:15am

Looks okay to me, but maybe he was working with a dying pen. Looks like he had to work it a bit to get it going.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on August 2, 2012 at 5:05am

The thing that bothers me the most is it just makes no sense to me that Mantle would sign his name on top of each other when he could have signed straight along the top of the bat in a single lined auto...and even though he did those loops in the bottoms of them M's it seemed kind of fishy that if this was signed later in his life although there is no question that that is a trait from authentic examples I have noticed that those loops kind of died down towards the end of his in person show signings...if its good or bad....it is what it is...but I personally just don't like it... especially having a Global cert on it...if PSA and or JSA said ok to this I would feel better...

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on August 1, 2012 at 6:33am

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mickey-Mantle-VS-Sandy-Koufax-Autographed-P...

DOUBLE FAKES...

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Permalink Reply by Dane on August 1, 2012 at 10:59pm

And here's a head-scratcher:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200800796385

It's likely real, because of who is selling it, but what the heck? Was this supposed to be used as a cut for their "relic" cards? Instead they're selling it direct to the hobby. It makes me a bit irritated (and a bit disheartened) that Topps likely destroyed hundreds like it.

On the other hand, SMR will have a specific sale of a check rather than the "theoretical" $3000 value.

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Permalink Reply by CJCollector on August 2, 2012 at 6:06am

Ebay removed that Mantle/Koufax auction Cee Gee.

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Permalink Reply by Dane on August 1, 2012 at 11:27pm

This is a cool forgery. I mean, it seems every element to the elaborate story is what kills the story:

First off, Merrill Lynch is written very odd for someone who is known for writing his "i" and "l" at the same height. Secondly, I believe Biogen went public in Sept 1991, so it would make no sense for Williams to be writing a check to his broker for Biogen stock. Third, and this would be the most important, if Pat O'Brien were a real broker, and this were a real client check, initial stock purchases wouldn't be taken in this form. The order would be placed at a set amount and paid out of the client account.

A client wouldn't be able to say "Hey Pat! Buy me $2,417.56 of Biogen!" If that happened, the broker would be required to say "Mr Williams. We can't really do that. I need to know how many shares you wish to purchase, and either a price or date that you would like the purchase to be placed."

All of that said, it might be real. I didn't even bother to try and figure out the signature, since the rest didn't make sense.