[Topnotchsy]

Hey all,

Heritage has a lineup card from Hank Aaron's 714th homerun up at auction now. The lineup card comes from a staffer on the Braves, is signed by Aaron etc.

The issue I'm wondering about is that there is a second lineup card (one that sold a few years back at Lelands) that also appears to be from the same game. The Lelands one is said to have been Mathew's personal copy. (The ink version usually goes to the umpire).

In looking them over, one thing that jumps out is that in the Heritage listing, it is clearly Mathews signature, while the Lelands one has someone else's signature. If you look at other lineup cards from the era (I have one from the end of 1973, though don't seem to have a scan on my computer) I have never seen another lineup card where Mathews himself signed it. Over the years it was somewhat common for manager's to have someone else on the staff fill out and sign the lineup card for them (Durocher did so from time to time as an example). From all the lineup cards I've seen from that era (not a ton, but a couple of others) it seems like Mathews at least fairly consistently had someone else signing.

Looking at the lineup cards here, the one up at Heritage is written in the same hand as other lineup cards from the era (some times they were in print and at times script, but my guess is that it was all the same person).

There are a range of possibilities here. It is known that for Ripken's record setting game they filled out extra lineup cards. I can't see that being the case here since if so I'd assume all would have been signed by Mathews, and with Aaron's HR's, there was no way to know which game he would tie the record.

My gut feeling therefore, is that after the game, given the significance of the record tying homerun, another lineup card was written and Mathews signed it.

Not sure whether this is right, and not sure how I feel about it. Was hoping to get some thoughts/opinions from others. I collect lineup cards and this and the 715 one would have been grail items for me if I had the confidence that they were used in the course of the actual game.