O/T Who has signed the most autographs

[skelly423]

I don't think there's any way to know for sure, but three candidates jump to mind. Just wanted to do an unscientific poll to see what the members here think.

Choices are:
Bob Feller
Stan Musial
Pete Rose
Other

If you pick other, please name your choice.

[oldjudge]

Babe Ruth

[brunswickreeves]

Mickey Mantle or Ken Griffey Jr

[mrreality68]

I would think out of that group Pete Rose he has been signing for years and is always doing events to stay relevant since he got banned from Baseball. He used to have a setup at Las Vegas and just cater to tourists for signatures

[Al C.risafulli]

I was on a consignment road trip a few years back and I stopped at the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, IA. I took a picture of the building and posted it on LOTG's social media, and someone commented "Did he sign it?"

He's the only guy I know who has a hobby joke that everyone says, which is that it's more rare to find a Feller collectible without his autograph than with.

That being said, here are some of the other signatures not listed above that I see constantly:

Lou Boudreau
Larry Doby
Rick Ferrell
Phil Rizzuto
Brooks Robinson
Monte Irvin
Enos Slaughter
Johnny Mize

-Al

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

I was on a consignment road trip a few years back and I stopped at the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, IA. I took a picture of the building and posted it on LOTG's social media, and someone commented "Did he sign it?"

He's the only guy I know who has a hobby joke that everyone says, which is that it's more rare to find a Feller collectible without his autograph than with.

That being said, here are some of the other signatures not listed above that I see constantly:

Lou Boudreau
Larry Doby
Rick Ferrell
Phil Rizzuto
Brooks Robinson
Monte Irvin
Enos Slaughter
Johnny Mize

-Al

We've definitely used the Feller joke and the related Rose joke:

Nice 1965 Topps Pete Rose. I see it's not autographed, better not let him see it...

[wolf441]

Originally Posted by Al C.risafulli

I was on a consignment road trip a few years back and I stopped at the Bob Feller Museum in Van Meter, IA. I took a picture of the building and posted it on LOTG's social media, and someone commented "Did he sign it?"

He's the only guy I know who has a hobby joke that everyone says, which is that it's more rare to find a Feller collectible without his autograph than with.

That being said, here are some of the other signatures not listed above that I see constantly:

Lou Boudreau
Larry Doby
Rick Ferrell
Phil Rizzuto
Brooks Robinson
Monte Irvin
Enos Slaughter
Johnny Mize

-Al

Great list Al!

I would add Bobby Doerr, Warren Spahn and Buck O'Neil as three more nice guys who signed a ton of stuff...

[Huck]

Hands down Feller. Feller was a regular on the circuit. Feller was everywhere, store openings, car dealerships, moose lodges, heck he even had a museum. Great guy, an ambassador for the game. Now, the new Feller is Jim Palmer or Steve Carlton. Once, I had Palmer sign a Perez-Steele postcard. Palmer saw the postcard and said "Ah, Perez-Steele, I think that I have signed every one (10K) of those postcards."

[BeanTown]

Originally Posted by oldjudge

Babe Ruth

Haha and +1

[EddieP]

Brooks Robinson

[bnorth]

I was thinking Bob Feller and Mickey Mantle.

[slidekellyslide]

There are guys who have been signing for Topps for years now in their modern products like Goose Gossage, Jim Rice and Dennis Eckersley.

[skelly423]

Babe Ruth died in his early 50s. The other 3 all got 80+ years of signing.

If the question was who has the most autographs, it'd be Babe, but I doubt he signed most of them...

[Kathy062495]

Jim Palmer said the same thing to me about signing a Perez Steele card. Nice guy.

[Huck]

Originally Posted by Kathy062495

Jim Palmer said the same thing to me about signing a Perez Steele card. Nice guy.

I think Palmer was a little miffed because the signing was at Orioles fan-fest for cheap!

[Lucas00]

Red Schoendienst was a part of big league baseball for 76 years. I believe that is a standing record with nobody coming very close to breaking it.

He never turned down an autograph request. And signed for modern products until his death in 2018.

I'll also definitely add Stan Musial as a contender.

[Bigdaddy]

I'd vote for Pete, for a couple of reasons:

• His relevancy to the sport during the years of the autograph boom,
• His almost constant presence at shows, casinos and other events,
• His need for a steady income stream to support his gambling habit.

With that said, I've got a 1966 Topps out to him at a paid signing later this month. Just wanted a signed, vintage (1960s) card of his.

Honorable mention would go to Bob Feller. Never saw a sharpie he didn't like.

If he'd have lived longer, I'd put Babe up there:

[tod41]

Nolan Ryan

[Huck]

Feller's signing career was from 1936 until 2010 and he was everywhere and cheap! He was the gateway player for anyone who collects autographs. Now there are fewer shows and the average price for a signature is $90-$110 a throw. Feller is the KING!

I question how long the lines are in Vegas to get Pete's autograph. Most folks are going to want to spend money on gambling not Pete's signature. One does not go to Vegas for autographs.

Based on what I see at a CSA show, a good-day-of-crowd for any hof signer is 100 or more signatures. In this era, a sellout is so rare I never preorder. When I purchase my tickets if the ticket number is under 100, in my opinion it is not a good draw for the particular signer. I don't know what lies beyond the curtain (mail order) where the real money is made. For kicks, let's say 100 day of and a generous 200 in mail order, that is 300 signatures. There are fewer shows now in a given year than the roaring 90's and 00's. Say the player does 5 shows a year. That is just 1500 autographs. The post induction year shows will be the biggest draw with the numbers dwindling with each additional year and show. Over 10 years 15,000 signed items.

George Brett used to appear at one show maybe two per year. I have not seen him listed as a guest in over a decade. I have not seen Koufax at show since the mid-90's. So, the amount of autographs available for some players is far less than others. Jeter and Ichiro are two other examples.

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by Lucas00

Red Schoendienst was a part of big league baseball for 76 years. I believe that is a standing record with nobody coming very close to breaking it.

He never turned down an autograph request. And signed for modern products until his death in 2018.

I'll also definitely add Stan Musial as a contender.

two Red Sox are in that neighborhood Johnny Pesky had 70 years of service in some capacity with mostly the Red Sox, and Charlie Wagner, I believe is the all-time leader 78 years all with the Red Sox.

[judsonhamlin]

Coaches Corner

[Aquarian Sports Cards]

Originally Posted by judsonhamlin

Coaches Corner

You win the internet for today.

[JollyElm]

783. Infelleribility
The oft-heard quip that whenever you run across anything Bob Feller related, it is virtually guaranteed that the piece will have Bob Feller’s autograph on it.

[dmats33312]

With having a decent autograph collection and seeing what is posted, hands down for me it would be Rose without a doubt. Seems like everyone has a Fingers, Perry, Jenkins as well. I know there are a ton of Feller out there but I do see less of them for sale as the others, but that is more to recency bias I would guess.

[BillyCoxDodgers3B]

The Bob Feller Museum is/was smaller than a one room schoolhouse. It is/was partitioned into two rooms: the "museum", which was nothing to write home about, and the gift shop. As I recall from my visit in the 1990's, practically everything was signed, including things on display as well as nearly everything that was for sale in the gift shop. The museum was fairly devoid of interesting memorabilia. I remember feeling that Bob wasn't very giving of his mementoes for this project and figured the best stuff was either in Cooperstown or still in his attic. The one item that sticks in my memory was the cap he wore during WWII (not the uniform hat, but rather some ratty, green thing, which was all frayed). Of course, he had signed it in black Sharpie for some reason, in spite of the fact it was something HE owned!

Dan beat me to it with what he said about the players who have been signing insert cards for companies ad nauseum since the 1990's. Feller did as well, but some of these these guys are really starting to make a run for the record.

[sycks22]

I remember being at Twinsfest back in 2008 at the dome. I was walking around and looked up and made eye contact with Feller sitting at a table with a sign saying "$20 for all autos.". I figured why the hell not? So I stopped on by and got him on a ball. Super nice guy to talk to as well.

[jethrod3]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

The Bob Feller Museum is/was smaller than a one room schoolhouse. It is/was partitioned into two rooms: the "museum", which was nothing to write home about, and the gift shop. As I recall from my visit in the 1990's, practically everything was signed, including things on display as well as nearly everything that was for sale in the gift shop. The museum was fairly devoid of interesting memorabilia. I remember feeling that Bob wasn't very giving of his mementoes for this project and figured the best stuff was either in Cooperstown or still in his attic. The one item that sticks in my memory was the cap he wore during WWII (not the uniform hat, but rather some ratty, green thing, which was all frayed). Of course, he had signed it in black Sharpie for some reason, in spite of the fact it was something HE owned!

I have somewhat different memories of the Bob Feller Museum and they were good ones. My 2 trips occurred when I was visiting relatives in Des Moines, a short distance away, in the early- to mid-2000's. Yes, it was 2 rooms, but when I went they were packed with stuff to see & read about. I recall spending 90 minutes to 2 hours there, including looking at merchandise for sale and talking to a staff member there. They had the famous bat he had let the Babe use & there were many of Bob's items as well as some material on loan from other players.

Bob may have stopped signing at the time of his death, but I was told by a staff member that he hoped he could keep the museum open well after his death, and one mechanism he envisioned for accomplishing this was by signing a lot of memorabilia that was to be sold AFTER he died. This included the yellow HOF plaque cards. I remember purchasing for those cards for $5 at the time, and in fact, everything there including signed photos and neat little HOF busts were very reasonably priced. So I would say that Feller probably signed the most autographs, and from this collector's point of view, he set a high bar that other athletes could learn a few things from.

[egri]

I think it's Bobby Doerr. The longevity of his signing window is unmatched; he broke into professional baseball in 1934 and likely started getting autograph requests around then (or at the latest, his MLB debut in 1937), then kept signing until a couple weeks before he died in 2017. He never charged a fee either; even the nominal one charged by many of the others mentioned would have cut down on requests to them.

[todeen]

Bobby Thomson and Ralph Branca signed together at the 2001 All Star Fanfest. They talked to everyone, took pictures. Their line lasted forever. I think it was the most popular signing all day.

As for who signed the most, there are some really great suggestions. Whoever said Enos Slaughter - that was a good choice. But Rose or Feller are top tier signers. And, my parents got Rose's signature for $100 in Vegas.

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