Johnny Mostil signed ball?

[thecatspajamas]

I don't often seek opinions on autos, but thought it prudent on this ball. I got in a pretty rough Ban Johnson ball as part of a small collection of older vintage balls, and noticed that this one looks to be signed. (None of the balls were touted as being signed, just old). The ball itself is heavily soiled, to the point that I had to use a black light to have any hope of identifying the signature, and even then, I'm not 100% on it. Hence this post.

My best guess is that it's Johnny Mostil (signed "John A Mostil" or perhaps "Johnny Mostil") which fits the time period of the handwritten date as well as the ball manufacturing date. The hitch is that I have not been able to find any exemplars of his signature on a ball, nor any signatures on any medium from that time period to compare to. Anyone else care to render an opinion or have a better exemplar to compare to?

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll13/thecatspajamas99/L-/21/IMG_9601.jpg

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll13/thecatspajamas99/L-/21/IMG_9603.jpg

[earlywynnfan]

To me, that last letter is clearly a "y" -- it looks exactly the same as the "y" in Johnny.

Ken

[milkit1]

i disagree, that is an "il" and yes i do think thats a Johnny Mostil signed ball. pretty cool