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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on May 27, 2017 at 9:05am

They both look like signatures printed on the balls to me. Well, probably printed on a plastic that was adhered to the balls. Let's see what others say.

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Permalink Reply by Drew Welch on May 30, 2017 at 5:11am

I've seen the names arranged in the same order on 50s Dodgers balls before, but the explanation I've seen previously was that is was clubhouse signed.  The smudge pattern is odd, but I'd imagine it could be produced by one hand with a fountain pen signing the whole ball. 

I'm curious to hear thoughts on the Yankee ball, I have a '55 ball too that wasn't as well preserved, but the signatures look very similar.

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Permalink Reply by Pete Bendu on May 30, 2017 at 8:19am

Working in a collectibles shop in New England, where we handled plenty of sports memorabilia in the past, I have seen both of these types of balls repeatedly. The standard outcome for the Dodgers ball is that it was signed by Charlie "The Brow," The Dodgers Batboy and clubhouse attendant.  He had a pattern of signing certain names in order as Drew mentioned.

The Yankees ball, very similar to a number of 50's and 60's Yankee balls that we have handled, seems to always turn out to be a mixed bag, some names signed by the players and the balls finished off by a clubhouse attendant.

In no way, shape or form have I studied the material like others here, but I am convinced that at least some of these balls were actually signed by Mantle with an interim signature, somewhere between his earliest style signature and his more recognized later signature. But it seems that the majority of 3rd party authenticators just seem to always claim that these mid-career signatures are all "clubhouse."

    

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