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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 Lance on March 7, 2012 at 9:48am

I'd buy just for "nostalgia" sake and conversation... but not at that price of course. That Mantle dosen't even come close to a real Mantle signature.

We've seen better forgeries then the "bullpen boys" littered out industry with!

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Permalink Reply by Lance on March 7, 2012 at 9:44am

Looks like the Seller ended the auction...

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 7, 2012 at 9:52am

Thank you I did not know that until a few mins ago and for he link about it. It should be down momentarily. Thanks again.

Cory apparently didn't know about Stan's and Marino.. One can only imagine how many of these will continue to turn up over the years.

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Permalink Reply by CEE GEE on March 7, 2012 at 10:40am

Marino master piece right there....

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 7, 2012 at 11:08am

Here is where I would like some clarification.

This style has been identified as Marino. This matches they style shown in the Operation Bullpen book and identified as a Marino Family forgery. If this was the "masterwork" Greg Marino was creating, it's a joke. This should not fool even the casual collector.

However, the style below was also widely available through B&J Collectibles and other known Marino Family distributors. It clearly does not match the style above. The style below, while obviously fake to a trained eye, it much more refined and deceptive than the amateurish Stan's forgery.

So, which one is the true Marino?

And if the second one is not a Marino, who was producing these? They are far more common than the style seen in the Stan's example.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 7, 2012 at 11:41am

can you identify the page the Mantle, matches they style shown in the Operation Bullpen book and identified as a Marino Family forgery, in the operation bullpen book by Nelson? Or is it another book as I find references to mantle but what's shown is Williams & DiMaggio amongst others but no Mantles depicted signed by Marino that I can locate?

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 7, 2012 at 11:45am

I misremembered. It was the Operation Bullpen web site. The matching style is here:

http://www.operationbullpen.com/gallery1.html

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Permalink Reply by Lance on March 7, 2012 at 11:52am

Even the Marino version of Dimaggio looks way off... can't believe those guys got away for so long with those fakes... His Mantle was "horrible" compared to the obvious fakes we've been discussing.

...I read the Operation Bullpen book and it was a good read.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Cyrkin, Admin on March 7, 2012 at 12:18pm

It just shows you that the knowledge and skills of both forgers and authenticators keep improving. If an autograph's authentication is more than a few years old--even from a reputable authenticator--I get a input from friends before I go for it...unless I know it myself.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on March 7, 2012 at 12:20pm

Agree. Hard to believe the rough looking Mantle and insanely warped DiMaggio fooled anyone. They should be obviously fake to anyone who has seen even a few real ones.

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Permalink Reply by DB on March 7, 2012 at 11:55am

thanks - got it. here is a side by side so we're not jumping back & forth. Weren't there some different variations from the inner forgery ring? I thought I read that somewhere and now have to go on the hunt for it...