O/T Who has signed the most autographs
 

I don't think there's any way to know for sure, but three candidates jump to mind. Just wanted to do an unscientific poll to see what the members here think.

Choices are:
Bob Feller
Stan Musial
Pete Rose
Other

If you pick other, please name your choice.

Babe Ruth

Mickey Mantle or Ken Griffey Jr

Hands down Feller. Feller was a regular on the circuit. Feller was everywhere, store openings, car dealerships, moose lodges, heck he even had a museum. Great guy, an ambassador for the game. Now, the new Feller is Jim Palmer or Steve Carlton. Once, I had Palmer sign a Perez-Steele postcard. Palmer saw the postcard and said "Ah, Perez-Steele, I think that I have signed every one (10K) of those postcards."

I would think out of that group Pete Rose he has been signing for years and is always doing events to stay relevant since he got banned from Baseball. He used to have a setup at Las Vegas and just cater to tourists for signatures

Perez Steele
 

Jim Palmer said the same thing to me about signing a Perez Steele card. Nice guy.

I was on a consignment road trip a few years back and I stopped at the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, IA. I took a picture of the building and posted it on LOTG's social media, and someone commented "Did he sign it?"

He's the only guy I know who has a hobby joke that everyone says, which is that it's more rare to find a Feller collectible without his autograph than with.

That being said, here are some of the other signatures not listed above that I see constantly:

Lou Boudreau
Larry Doby
Rick Ferrell
Phil Rizzuto
Brooks Robinson
Monte Irvin
Enos Slaughter
Johnny Mize

-Al

Haha and +1

Brooks Robinson

Babe Ruth died in his early 50s. The other 3 all got 80+ years of signing.

If the question was who has the most autographs, it'd be Babe, but I doubt he signed most of them...

I was thinking Bob Feller and Mickey Mantle.

There are guys who have been signing for Topps for years now in their modern products like Goose Gossage, Jim Rice and Dennis Eckersley.

Across all sports, it has to be Ali.

We've definitely used the Feller joke and the related Rose joke:

Nice 1965 Topps Pete Rose. I see it's not autographed, better not let him see it...

Non-autographed Bob Feller items are probably rarer than signed ones. :D He signed a ball for me, at the old Municipal Stadium, in the 1980s and was great. I don’t think he hardly ever turned down signing something, and usually for free unless he was at a show.

However, I vote Pete Rose. He is an autograph machine. As I type this, he’s probably set up at a Vegas hotel/casino signing items at this very moment.

Great list Al!

I would add Bobby Doerr, Warren Spahn and Buck O'Neil as three more nice guys who signed a ton of stuff...

Joe DiMaggio and Mickey mantle would be my choice. Joe d was the first I remember doing paid autograph signings in the early 80s?

Red Schoendienst was a part of big league baseball for 76 years. I believe that is a standing record with nobody coming very close to breaking it.

He never turned down an autograph request. And signed for modern products until his death in 2018.

I'll also definitely add Stan Musial as a contender.

I'd vote for Pete, for a couple of reasons:

• His relevancy to the sport during the years of the autograph boom,
• His almost constant presence at shows, casinos and other events,
• His need for a steady income stream to support his gambling habit.

With that said, I've got a 1966 Topps out to him at a paid signing later this month. Just wanted a signed, vintage (1960s) card of his.

Honorable mention would go to Bob Feller. Never saw a sharpie he didn't like.

If he'd have lived longer, I'd put Babe up there:

Nolan Ryan

Feller's signing career was from 1936 until 2010 and he was everywhere and cheap! He was the gateway player for anyone who collects autographs. Now there are fewer shows and the average price for a signature is $90-$110 a throw. Feller is the KING!

I question how long the lines are in Vegas to get Pete's autograph. Most folks are going to want to spend money on gambling not Pete's signature. One does not go to Vegas for autographs.

Based on what I see at a CSA show, a good-day-of-crowd for any hof signer is 100 or more signatures. In this era, a sellout is so rare I never preorder. When I purchase my tickets if the ticket number is under 100, in my opinion it is not a good draw for the particular signer. I don't know what lies beyond the curtain (mail order) where the real money is made. For kicks, let's say 100 day of and a generous 200 in mail order, that is 300 signatures. There are fewer shows now in a given year than the roaring 90's and 00's. Say the player does 5 shows a year. That is just 1500 autographs. The post induction year shows will be the biggest draw with the numbers dwindling with each additional year and show. Over 10 years 15,000 signed items.

George Brett used to appear at one show maybe two per year. I have not seen him listed as a guest in over a decade. I have not seen Koufax at show since the mid-90's. So, the amount of autographs available for some players is far less than others. Jeter and Ichiro are two other examples.

I think Palmer was a little miffed because the signing was at Orioles fan-fest for cheap!

two Red Sox are in that neighborhood Johnny Pesky had 70 years of service in some capacity with mostly the Red Sox, and Charlie Wagner, I believe is the all-time leader 78 years all with the Red Sox.

Coaches Corner

You win the internet for today.

783. Infelleribility
The oft-heard quip that whenever you run across anything Bob Feller related, it is virtually guaranteed that the piece will have Bob Feller’s autograph on it.

With having a decent autograph collection and seeing what is posted, hands down for me it would be Rose without a doubt. Seems like everyone has a Fingers, Perry, Jenkins as well. I know there are a ton of Feller out there but I do see less of them for sale as the others, but that is more to recency bias I would guess.

I once got a nice '54 Bowman Bowman signed by Feller, who quickly dubbed it the "water cooler shot" and was very chatty and friendly. It was a small show and maybe he felt had more time to spare to the patrons.

I voted for Bobby Feller as I felt is there anything he didn’t sign?? Very nice person, met him at Orve Johansson’s store in Largo years ago as he stopped in every now and then. Had a lot of stories and was a fun person to meet. Rose on the other hand, thinking about it more, may have passed him as he’s everywhere the last 10-15 years.

I know this is a baseball discussion, but two others that have to be near the top are Arnold Palmer and Richard Petty. Both signed (or in Petty's case, are still signing) for over 60 years and were known for never refusing an autograph request.

I read Chris Rodell's excellent book on Palmer a few years ago and Rodell wrote that Palmer would spend six figures each year of his own money mailing back autograph requests to people that did not include a SASE with their request. At the end of his life, he would sit in his office and sign requests until his hand was so swollen, he could not even close his hand.

Petty still visits his museum one day each week just to fulfill mail-in autograph requests. The staff at the museum lay out each item on a series of tables and he moves along, signing each item. Occasionally, Petty will pause and make a personal notation on the item if it is unique or something he has not seen before.

Pretty sure Rose is the correct answer, with Feller close behind. Rose probably overtook Feller sometime in the last 5 years.

I would also put Mantle, Berra and Ripken a notch below. Gibson, Ryan, Snider, Musial and Ozzie Smith are up there too. That's my top 10.

So the claim is that Palmer spent over $100k a year to mail autographs to people? That seems.........extremely implausible. 45 cents for a stamp and 15 cents for an envelope = 60 cents per. So 160,000+ autographs to people who didn't send an SASE? I don't buy it.

I like Arnold Palmer just as much as anyone, but I think these claims supposedly made by the author are contentious at best. Yes, Palmer was a great signer, but spending at least $100,000 per year on return postage for all the people who didn't include an SASE? Give me a break. Most people are aware and courteous enough to cover that cost themselves. Yes, there would be some, and while I don't doubt that Palmer was gracious enough to foot the bill, the costs simply wouldn't have escalated into hundreds of thousands annually!

Don't forget that whenever his hand hurt from signing so much, Arnie could rely on his trusty Autopen.

I haven't read the book from which you've sourced your stories, but I'm guessing it must be filled with even more hot air.

The Bob Feller Museum is/was smaller than a one room schoolhouse. It is/was partitioned into two rooms: the "museum", which was nothing to write home about, and the gift shop. As I recall from my visit in the 1990's, practically everything was signed, including things on display as well as nearly everything that was for sale in the gift shop. The museum was fairly devoid of interesting memorabilia. I remember feeling that Bob wasn't very giving of his mementoes for this project and figured the best stuff was either in Cooperstown or still in his attic. The one item that sticks in my memory was the cap he wore during WWII (not the uniform hat, but rather some ratty, green thing, which was all frayed). Of course, he had signed it in black Sharpie for some reason, in spite of the fact it was something HE owned!

Dan beat me to it with what he said about the players who have been signing insert cards for companies ad nauseum since the 1990's. Feller did as well, but some of these these guys are really starting to make a run for the record.

I remember being at Twinsfest back in 2008 at the dome. I was walking around and looked up and made eye contact with Feller sitting at a table with a sign saying "$20 for all autos.". I figured why the hell not? So I stopped on by and got him on a ball. Super nice guy to talk to as well.

Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca signed together at the 2001 All Star Fanfest. They talked to everyone, took pictures. Their line lasted forever. I think it was the most popular signing all day.

As for who signed the most, there are some really great suggestions. Whoever said Enos Slaughter - that was a good choice. But Rose or Feller are top tier signers. And, my parents got Rose's signature for $100 in Vegas.

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I have somewhat different memories of the Bob Feller Museum and they were good ones. My 2 trips occurred when I was visiting relatives in Des Moines, a short distance away, in the early- to mid-2000's. Yes, it was 2 rooms, but when I went they were packed with stuff to see & read about. I recall spending 90 minutes to 2 hours there, including looking at merchandise for sale and talking to a staff member there. They had the famous bat he had let the Babe use & there were many of Bob's items as well as some material on loan from other players.

Bob may have stopped signing at the time of his death, but I was told by a staff member that he hoped he could keep the museum open well after his death, and one mechanism he envisioned for accomplishing this was by signing a lot of memorabilia that was to be sold AFTER he died. This included the yellow HOF plaque cards. I remember purchasing for those cards for $5 at the time, and in fact, everything there including signed photos and neat little HOF busts were very reasonably priced. So I would say that Feller probably signed the most autographs, and from this collector's point of view, he set a high bar that other athletes could learn a few things from.

I think it's Bobby Doerr. The longevity of his signing window is unmatched; he broke into professional baseball in 1934 and likely started getting autograph requests around then (or at the latest, his MLB debut in 1937), then kept signing until a couple weeks before he died in 2017. He never charged a fee either; even the nominal one charged by many of the others mentioned would have cut down on requests to them.

It seems a bit suspect to me as well, even if a lot of people sending 8x10s, programs, visors, etc did not include return postage. In between postage/packing materials/paying someone to package all that stuff up and take it to the post office, if it came out to $10 per request, that's 10,000 autographs a year, or almost 200 requests a week just of large items without return postage. I'd certainly be interested in what Chris Rodell's source was for that six-figures line.

I don’t see too many people sending in anything larger than an index card to Feller via mail. Why? Just hold on to the oversized items till they appear somewhat local. I don’t think big companies like Steiner are sending hats or 8x10s to feller either they have bigger fish to fry

That was about Arnold Palmer, not Feller.

I didn't know Babe Ruth signed right handed, I guess he is the opposite of Brooks Robinson who I believe signs left handed.

Lefties were 'sinister,' the hand of the devil, so the nuns forced southpaw kids to write with their right hands. They tried that on my left-handed sister in Queens, but she got lucky when my parents switched her to public school where she could write normally and not tempt eternal damnation by signing someone's yearbook with her left hand. :rolleyes:

A wonderful, historical example of humanity being stupid for no reason. Who TF cares what hand is a person's dominant one?

I had a great uncle who was a lefty. In public school back in the old country over 100 years ago, the teacher would tie my uncle's left arm behind his back to force him to write with his right hand. Sadly, having to deal with this BS greatly staggered my uncle's interest in continuing his education. He wasn't a dumb man, as he moved to this continent alone, taught himself English, excelled in his profession and retired very comfortably. His reading level in either language remained that of a fifth grader, and his handwriting was incredibly labored because he continued to write with the right (wrong) hand.

I went with Feller.

The time I met him, he had a stack of 8 1/2x11 sheets with a preprinted picture , and career highlights on the back.
Pretty much every kid in the park picked up a couple, and a few minutes later many were paper planes all over the park.

I asked if that bothered him and he just said nope, it's kids being kids.

Many kids came back for more, and most of the stack was pre signed.
While we talked, he signed and gave out more... (The cleanup staff must have been unhappy..)

The stack he had was easily 1500 sheets and were all given out.

Now if the question was who signed the most AND had most of the autographs survive. That would be a different question.

Ahhh, I didn't think about that. When I was in early grades in the early 70's the teachers wanted me to write a certain way left handed in order to not smudge the ink as I wrote. I of course refused to and I am an ink smudger to this day.

My uncle forced my 23 year old cousin to write right handed hoping he could become ambidextrous. The reasoning behind this was so that he could inherit all of the right handed fishing equipment.

LOL, you are not the only ink smudger. Not sure how the heck some write with that twisted up wrist.

Weirdly I can do most things with both hands, arms, and legs equally well but prefer to write and eat left handed and most other things right handed.

Bob Feller
 

Bob Feller would sign autographs at shows, then go to the bar after and sign all night at the bar. I've seen far more Bob Feller autographs at shows versus any of the other players mentioned in this thread. Plus, all the signings at his museum, all the shows, team fest, baseball banquets, on and on. He would call one of my friends that was a show promoter and ask if he needed an autograph guest. There were dealers in the 1980's with piles of Bob Feller signed 8x10's for $1.00 each. I can't see Pete even coming close to Feller. It's like Pete chasing DiMaggio's 56 game hit streak.

It's Rose by a long shot. Dude is a machine and whips out a perfect autograph in a nanosecond. Never seems to get tired either, and he's been signing this way for a very long time.