Help with Signature on 1953 NL Al Star Baseball
 

All -

Am doing some homework for a friend - he inherited this ball from a relative.

We've got all sigs identified but the bottom one on this image.

Does anyone recognize the one on the bottom?

Here's a quick link to the rosters...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Ma...r_Game#Rosters

Jacksons, I may not know who the signature belongs to, but MAN, that's a bold set of autographs!! Great piece your friend has!

It's Hoyt Wilhelm (quick/sloppy version)

Jacksons--

Am I right that that is a stamped signature ball?

These are hand-written, and not stamped. The stamped sigs never overlap, as in this example...

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...ead.php?t=1124

It looks like Hoyt's signature was as hard to follow as his knuckler ...

Thanks, Perez - that's what I thought. By process of elimination, his was one of the few not included on any of the other panels.

Thanks again.

stamped/facsimile IMO

It is impossible to say without holding it in person, but It looks like ink, you can see some spaces where it looks like the pen skipped a bit, plus the stamp balls are usually lighter and the signatures were smaller and more consistent. There were some really nice ink pens in the early 1950's. It was called something like India ink or Indian ink or something. The pens were expensive, but they held up well.

Scott

Right... India Ink. The best/boldest ink available. This ball has enough inconsistencies that I think you can easily rule out stamped sigs. The Wilhelm would not be that sloppy either, as the stamped balls used perfect exemplars.

Also, the "1953" is obviously hand-written and appears to be in the same India Ink. Just my opinion...

Not a stamped ball, signatures overlapping is the first and most important clue.

The easiest way to make sure it is not stamped is just to see if the ball has markings. They used generic baseballs without stamp markings for the souvenir balls (fit more signatures on them that way and also they used a much cheaper ball) so if a Baseball has any Official markings on it such as the league president stamp or the Reach logo etc, then it is not a stamped souvenir ball. Looks like original ink anyways I just thought I would throw that out there.

Thanks to all that cleared that up for me!

The sigs just looked so similar & uniform and that partial J on Staley looked like it went right into the stitching, which is quite often the case on facsimile balls!