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Permalink Reply by Michelle Plotke on July 20, 2019 at 9:48am

These are more photos

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Plotke on July 20, 2019 at 9:50am

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Plotke on July 20, 2019 at 9:50am

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Plotke on July 20, 2019 at 9:51am

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Permalink Reply by Woody2Shoes on July 20, 2019 at 7:49pm

Separations between letters abound in Clemente signatures from the beginning of his career until the end. The only gap I can detect here is the obvious one, between the o and the b of Roberto, and ironically, a gap at that point is not the norm, especially a real pronounced one! At the end, the "te" of Clemente back slant. I've never seen that either. Could be an extreme outlier, but I don't like this one.

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on July 21, 2019 at 7:24am

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Permalink Reply by terrier8HOF on July 21, 2019 at 7:27am

ths signature has enough positives when compared to several other sweet spot Clemente signatures, however, the stamp on the Giles ball leads me to believe this is not an original baseball or signature.

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Permalink Reply by Woody2Shoes on July 21, 2019 at 10:56am

The ball is poorly manufactured, the distance between stitch holes so wide that the surface puckered under the stitches. Good call. I didn't even bother going into that.

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Permalink Reply by Michelle Plotke on July 21, 2019 at 5:12pm

So it’s more then likely a replica?

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Permalink Reply by Woody2Shoes on July 21, 2019 at 6:02pm

The ink could be stamped, thus a replica/souvenir ball. That would also account for the very even soaking of the ink into the surface of the ball. Usually, hand signing produces varied depths through varied pressure along the track and will feather or disperse/soak into and outward non-proportionately along the length of the track start to finish. Here, it appears that the ink is soaking outward very evenly throughout, suggesting a stamp, where all of the signature is imprinted under even pressure. These are stamped prior to the ball being assembles so the material is flat.

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