World Record Autographed Baseball Collection
 

What an amazing collection!...
Check out this video:

http://www.rr.com/video/2155650638

Real?
 

The Castro ball looked like it came right from Coaches Corner IMO.

Jeff

What about the Joe Jackson ball? C'mon is that real??
Great collection never the less!! Grandma's packing heat!! LOL :p

Hard to tell on Joe, could be a wife signed, or CC forgery. Wonderful collection tho.

If I was doing a story like this, I'd want to know how he amassed his collection. In person? Through the mail? How does he know they're authentic? I would bet good money that he would say through the mail or auction and then show a bunch of Morales or Stat COA's. With that said, I do like his room and how he's displaying the balls, although I'm wondering about his lighting...seems a bit harsh for those balls but he may be taking precautions.

yeah I want the specs on that room. its killer!

If you pause the video at 1:35, you can see all you need. Keefe, Clarkson and even a Radbourn in there! I am sure most are real but I bet he is a shopper of CC.

what did they compare the collection too to give himan award. Who did they check with. I know of 3 collections that have more than his and most of them are single signed balls and not team baseballs

All he did was invite an intruder into his home safe or not

I couldn't agree more with this statement. Why would you want to invite thieves into your home? They even gave his name and what town he lives in.
Holy smoke Batman!! :eek:

That really seems like overkill. How can you really appreciate anything when you have to lock it up like that and carry guns?

He did an interview for our site last year and let the writer take a tour of the vault. He also got to take some pics that may be of interest: http://www.bigleaguebaseballs.com/ma...e-cooperstown/

Amazing collection and display. With something of that magnitude, some cautionary doubt should be expected from the collector inside of us. I sincerely hope they are all real as he obviously has made it his life work, but as we all suspect I'm sure some forgeries made their way in.

A big +1

Agreed. Not many real ones of those guys are around. Double C must have a customer, sadly, but again, what a collection.

Rawlings, thanks for the link to your site. Pud Galvin died in 1902 at the age of 45. Does anyone really think there is a ball, let alone one that could be read, of Galvin? From the article:

Mike,
It's a little scary, isn't it? C'mon....

I really got a kick out of the old lady showing off her pistol. Whew, how intimidating! If you have to pack heat and make your memorabilia room bomb proof maybe you should have a different hobby, like needlepoint or scrapbooking. Sorry if I am not that impressed. Why would you want to go public with your collection if you have taken all these security precautions to protect it from potential thieves? I assume the collection is insured and would therefore be protected in the event of fire or theft.

No problem. And good question, I'll have to ask him about that.

I believe it's not insured, at least according to their interview. I'd guess the "vault" is actually more a result of his real life's work, which was related to homebuilding, but that might be a stretch.

Don't quote me on this, but I recall him getting interviewed by ESPN I believe, and there was a discussion about eventually donating some or all of the baseballs to a permanent display or a new museum so that the general public could one day enjoy this amazing collection. I don't know what the plans were but I believe that's still a possibility.

You're assumption would be wrong!

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/F...seballs-101811

It may be fireproof and burglary proof...but what if an intruder puts a gun to his wife's head and says to him, If you don't open the safe I'm going to kill her? Seems like the weak link in the defense. Not good to publicize these things.

I bet I have more autographed balls than him, that were actually handed to the player and signed in person for free...

2

Why so skeptical
 

I toured the collection and wrote the article previously posted in this thread.

I am a little surprised there seems to be such a negative reaction to the video/story.

Dennis is definitely proud and a bit eccentric but that doesn’t mean that he shops at Coaches Corner or that he has a bunch of garbage. He was very nice, welcoming and happy to share his collection. In short, I found him to be a class act that genuinely cared about the history of the game. Something I think he has in common with many forum members.

I am not close to the level that many are on this board and I admit that there are many more qualified to offer opinions of the authenticity and quality of the collection, however I feel like some of the comments were unnecessary and petty.

Matt Felix

This is a discussion forum. If you want the discussion to be exactly according to your own thoughts, then you should create a blog about it and not allow comments. I personally do not get too excited about 40,000 baseballs locked in a vault, and wouldn't have started a discussion thread about it. But here it is, and we're discussing it.

[QUOTE=Matt Felix;933094]I toured the collection and wrote the article previously posted in this thread.

I am a little surprised there seems to be such a negative reaction to the video...

There is only one way that the same collector can have a Galvin, Radford, Kelly, Anson, Keeler....

Pud
 

Here's the James Francis "Pud" Galvin lemon ball. Not judging, just sharing with permission from the owner.

http://forum.bigleaguebaseballs.com/...=232&mode=view

http://forum.bigleaguebaseballs.com/...=231&mode=view

That is one super-cool looking ball. Hopefully a ball expert will chime in here.

I wish I could have faith in the authenticity of signatures bought second-hand, but too many fakes have shown up in slabs and/or at major auction houses. Same for game-used jerseys, bats, etc. Just not my bag.

Scott <=== still has only two balls.

That looks like a modern ball to me.

It would definitely be the cleanest century-old baseball I've ever seen. Seems too good to be true but I know very little about autographs and 19th cent. baseballs.

all i see are two little red x's

Neither that signature or the ball pre-date 1902. I have likewise never seen an inscription on a Lemon Peel Ball that was not a trophy ball. Basically the practice of signing a Baseball did not happen pre 1910's and did not become popular until the 1920's. ANY SIGNED BASEBALL before 1920 you should be VERY skeptical about.


I am sure that 39,900 of his baseballs are authentic including some big names. I would be willing to bet the other 100 (pretty much anyone who died pre WW2 as a single signed ball) are probably not authentic.