Question for Jodi B. (and others)

[Archive]

Posted By: Jodi Birkholm

This is just one guy's opinion, but, unless you are a completest or die-hard fan, why on earth would you even desire a modern-day autograph? Besides being indecipherable, it's not like any player these days will ever be rare. Look at a guy like Steve Bechler, who passed away less than a year after his debut, or Dernell Stenson, for that matter, who was tragically killed the very same year in which he first set foot on the hallowed grasses of Fenway. Before their untimely deaths, these young men signed literally hundreds (if not thousands) of insert cards which can still be obtained at a nominal fee. Sure, a 3X5 will go for far more given the rarity of a modern-day player to grant a 3X5 request, but the point is that the signature itself will never be rare. The last "rare" players due to early death (prior to the advent of signed insert cards) have to be Cliff Young and Williams Suero. Despite toiling in the minors for nearly a decade, Suero is the toughest of the two, and it doesn't help that he is of Dominican heritage. Just as the future has no more room for 300-win pitchers, the term "rare modern-day autograph" has also gone the way of eight track tapes and Clara Bow's career once "talkies" became en vogue. The player who is the dividing line between the old and new schools appears to be John LeRoy, who only pitched one game for the '97 Braves and died on an operating table less than four years later at the age of 26. There exist some signed minor league insert cards, although the amount of these issued was not as great as those featuring the autographs of guys like Bechler and Stenson.