[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

Dan,

You're correct. This ball does look like it's had quite a bit of work done. The signature is fine, however. Keep in mind that the description you have quoted is not the writing of JSA, but rather the auction house. It's a safe bet that the word "removals" appears on JSA's review notes for this item, and that the seller/auction house was made aware of this fact.

It's also of interest to note that it appears that the resulting signature appears to be Cronin's second attempt at signing the ball. You can see a faint "J" in a different pen underneath the bolder "J". [Dan: Sorry, I didn't see that you had already mentioned this. It's just the result of a faulty pen, however--nothing overly unusual about that aspect.]