The Loose Canons is a great sports show on 570 AM in LA.

I guess you have to be a sports fan to enjoy it, as it’s all about sports.

They used to have former Laker Mychael Thompson as one of the hosts, and now they have Pat O’Brien (former Entertainment Tonight reporter).

Steve Hartman is great at moving the show along, and is an encyclopedia of knowledge.

Vick the Brick is kind of annoying, but hey – all radio shows need that annoying character, right?

Anyway, they have talked before about an autographed Babe Ruth baseball O’Brien bought at a charity auction. He found out years later that it was fake.

He said the other day “I still keep it out on display, though.”

He again talked about his vast collection of autographed memorabilia, saying “I’ve had these guys sign this stuff in front of me. Shoes that Julius Erving wore, game worn jerseys. Michael Jordan once told me…well, I won’t say the number. But a large portion of the stuff he sees sold with his signature, have fake signatures that he never signed.”

He explained that Jordan makes the “M” in his name, look like a “23” – his number. Someone on the show said “Yeah, but…can’t forgers just do that, too?”

O’Brien said “Not the way he does!”

They often go into autograph stories. I mentioned before on this site, about how O’Brien was going to take the last jersey Jordan wore in Washington. It was sitting in a pile of laundry. Jordan looked at him and said “If you take that, I will never speak to you again.”

Another time, he got a stick signed from Wayne Gretzky during an interview. As he carried it through an airport (in Canada), he was offered so much, from so many people, for it.

Well, yesterday – as they talked autographs – it was Hartman who brought up the most interesting story.

He had worked for a few years for the Oakland Raiders. He said they had a guy that worked in the ticket office, who would sign footballs for the team, doing all the signatures of the big name players they had. He said they looked so good, you couldn’t tell. Hartman added, “It also saved the team a lot of time. They could have him do a football they needed to give to someone, without bothering the players or trying to track them down.”

Now, I always figured sports teams did this sort of thing. I remember reading a book about The Doors, and a guy that opened their mail (Danny Sugarman) who became a best-selling author, used to sign their names for people that requested autographs.

I’m guessing most teams don’t make a habit of doing this, but I’m sure it gets done.

I just hope when the team is donating those balls to charity – those aren’t the ones that will have the forged signature; because just like Pat O’Brien, who thought he was donating to a good cause by over paying for a Babe Ruth signed baseball – he ended up with something that’s worthless.