Help on a Tigers Team Ball
 

I have a couple of Detroit Tigers team ball coming up in my next auction, one of which I am pretty sure it is the 1950 team. Can anyone confirm this or pinpoint a different year?

I will post the other ball in a different thread.

I agree; that ball is the 1950 Tigers team. It can be pinpointed to that year by Art Houtteman's inclusion on it, as he was drafted into the Army before the 1951 season started and did not play that year.

Also, Eddie Lake's last season was 1950, and Hank Borowy's, Charlie Keller's, Jerry Priddy's, Frank House's & Paul Calvert's first season was 1950.

Steve

It looks to me like it is a print ball with facsimile signatures. The signatures are all too consistent with the type of print for me to believe it to be an authentic.

That did enter my mind, but several of the signatures are either lighter or darker, some appear black and others more brown, and one or two appear smudged a bit.

Anyone else have an opinion?

I think it looks stamped and the preprinted letters/writing of the team seem to validate that thinking.

Not disagreeing that it may well be stamped, but why would some signatures appear in different shades(brown to pure black)??

It is definitely not stamped, those are live ink signatures.

I agree. On every facsimile ball I've seen, the signatures don't tough each other, in contrast to this ball. Also, on this one, you can see some ink smeared.

Agree.... Real ink sigs from the 1950 team.

It is just enjoyable to be able to read all or nearly all signatures on a ball. Modern team signed balls literally look like they were tossed into a cement mixer with a bunch of Bic pens w/o caps!

Without reading further, I thought the sigs looks real. There are spots that appear to be where the pen rested and left a darker spot. I figure with age, some of the ink had faded in areas, possibly worse than others. I only have exposure to 70s and newer facsimile balls and those are obvious from the get go every time. I could see how someone might think this is preprinted though, because all the signatures do seem to be clean and well placed.