Did Joe Dugan Collect T206 As A Teenager? Research Help Needed

[btcarfagno]

I just purchased a T206 Black Cap Christy Mathewson last night. On the back of the card someone has written "J Dugan" in fountain pen.

My questions: Is it possible that Joe Dugan (then age 12-14) collected T206 cards before he became a baseball star? If so, is there any possible way to come up with supporting evidence?

On the plus side:

Could this be a forgery?

Would not make much sense as it is not the player pictured on the card and by the time anyone would want to monetarily gain from such a thing, the Matty card itself would have had too much value to deface it with a forged fairly common signature.

Dugan at ages 12-14 upon release of the T206 set would be right in the collecting sweet spot. He was certainly the right age.

He was obviously a baseball fan at that point.

The signature itself. The "D" in Dugan looks very much like the exemplars that I have seen, and the rest of the last name is fairly close.

If he were "signing" a T206 Matty card later on (why would he even do that?) why would he not sign his full name instead of just "J Dugan"?

The problems:

How can I possibly authenticate the signature of a 12 year old and compare it to even the earliest examples of his signature and find a match? Will it not be expected that there will be differences?

The "J" is problematic in relation to the exemplars that I have seen. Then again, as I said above, would this not be somewhat expected of the signature of a 12 year old?

I have not found anything that points to Dugan having stated that he collected as a child.

Why have none others surfaced such as this if he had a collection? Maybe he just did this for his favorite player (Matty)?



I need the help of the board members.

I need to research whether he ever mentioned having collected as a kid. He lived until 1982, so he may have made mention of it somewhere. He did give interviews, was a speaker at a SABR convention in the mid 1970's, and was a very willing signor. Seems like a good guy who was happy to reminisce about his life. I am hoping that somewhere I can find something that mentions it. Where would I look? Does anyone have anywhere that they could find some info for me?

Also, did he ever mention having any special affinity for Matty growing up? He was born around the time that Matty would have been a star at Bucknell just 50 miles away. Dugan's family then moved to Connecticut and was 110 miles from NYC. Perhaps his family felt a special closeness to Matty as a player?

Any help regarding information or leads on where I can look for this info would be greatly appreciated.





Tom C

[The Nasty Nati]

I hope you find some leads, because this has the potential of being a fascinating discovery. Best of luck!

[Scott36153]

Very interesting indeed. But IDK.... that doesn't really look like a 12-14 year old's handwriting to me. But that was a different time back then, so IDK lol

[z28jd]

I didn't know there was a time limit upon release of the cards for people to sign them. I've been breaking that code left and right recently with my stash of 1987 Topps cards

[btcarfagno]

Originally Posted by z28jd

I didn't know there was a time limit upon release of the cards for people to sign them. I've been breaking that code left and right recently with my stash of 1987 Topps cards

Understood. However, I have seen hundreds of Dugan signatures from singles to teams to groupings to cut and have not once seen one that he signed simply "J Dugan". That obviously doesn't exclude the possibility that (if this is his signature) that he couldn't have signed it like that just this once.

Also, why would he sign the back of a Christy Mathewson T206 card later in life? Perhaps if he happened upon it in the 30's or 40's and did it perhaps. But the "J" is nothing like what his signature looked like from the mid 1920's on.

Tom C