WANTED: Willie Mays to sign my 1960 NL Ball

[perezfan]

Agree....

Why would you even consider letting them "hold you hostage" for that obscene amount of money?

Mays' current signature doesn't even resemble the 1960 version. And even if he signed flawlessly (a big "if"), it would stand out like a sore thumb, and subsequently ruin the ball.

You have a very nice vintage piece there. The stamped Mays signature is part of the Ball's heritage, so try to be content with that. There are thousands of other Mays signed items available at a fraction of that outlandish price. So if you must have a modern Mays autograph, try to obtain one without corrupting a great vintage ball or paying 20 times what it is worth.

[T20Brew]

Mike,
I'll echo what others have said here in I wouldn't do it.
I had a similar situation, although with a newer ball and not a player of Mays' caliber. I had purchased a Brewers team ball and noticed that a member of the current Brewers team at the time (late 90's) was a rookie during the time that the ball I just purchased was from. I had him sign it and tried to match the color of the original ball as much as I could. I wish I hadn't. It didn't look like the other signatures on the ball and stood out. My eyes are drawn to it each time I look at it and regret it.
Eric

[7nohitter]

I get that Mays is ornery (a prick) but why does it make him happy to purposely destroy an item?

Has anyone here ever called him on it?

[packs]

You can regularly pick up Mays baseballs on eBay for either just under or just over $100.

I say, hey, Willie that's ok.

[Duluth Eskimo]

I vote to go for it. Please post the after photos once it is complete. $1000 is totally worth it. Go for it!

[mdallen22]

I'd like to play devils advocate - This may not be comparing apples to apples with the caliber of players I'm going to mention among other key factors, but if you had a 1927 team signed Yankee ball but it was missing Ruths' signature, and you had the opportunity to get his signature some 20 years later, would you pursue it? I can already anticipate the comments seeking out a Ruth auto to a Mays auto and I don't want to compare the names, eras, supply of signatures in the market place etc but rather, if you have a chance to "complete" a team ball with arguably the best player of that team wouldn't you? Just playing devils advocate so be easy

I'm not paying $1,000 for a Mays signature and I agree with the majority of the boards comments. I'd happily display an original vintage Mays auto next to this piece before paying a large sum of money and risk damage. But the idea of having a newer signature on a vintage piece doesn't bother me personally. If the new autograph was say Dick Groat (sorry Dick i'm a Buccos fan I promise) instead of Willie Mays i'd be content. But when the player missing is a key player i'd pursue it, as I did. I'd pursue Musial too if it were possible rip.

[mdallen22]

Now I'll probably need to post in BST for an authentic vintage high grade Mays and Musial signed baseballs circa 50's-60's

[springpin]

As a teenager on a few occasions some friends and I would wait at the players' gate at Yankee Stadium to try to get autographs from players as they exited the stadium after a game. Consistent with what others have said, the players differed markedly in how they treated autograph seekers. Ralph Terry and Tony Kubek were always friendly and gave an easy to read autograph. Yogi Berra seemed to tolerate the clamor, would sign a few, but said nothing. Other players would not sign, would not speak, and simply ran through the gauntlet of admirers. My friends and I were usually in agreement about which players were nice and which ones were nasty. But there were a few who were highly variable, nice on some occasions and nasty on others. When nice they gave a clear autograph, and when nasty either did not sign or just gave an illegible scrawl. We could not understand why this set of players seemed so moody.

Flash forward about 20 years. I am at a regional sports show where Hank Bauer is signing. I had long lost my interest in autographs, but I was avidly into collecting pins. Bauer's pin had eluded me despite looking high and low for it (this is long before eBay). I knew a pin had been made of him, as a fellow collector had one. So I had a plan. I would buy a ticket and get in line to talk to Bauer. I did not want his autograph---I didn't even bring anything to sign. When it was my turn, I was going to ask him about his pin (a large PM-10). Surely he must have several, I reasoned. Then I was going to make him a financial offer he could not refuse. Additionally, in my pant's pocket I had a pre-addressed padded envelope with lots of postage on it. I had even rehearsed my speech.

I finally get before Bauer. It went something like this:
Bauer: "So what do you want me to sign?"
Me: "Nothing. I just would like the chance to purchase a pinback button of you."
Bauer: "What button? I don't have no button of me."
Me: "You must! They made buttons of all the players back then!"
Bauer: "I don't know what you are talking about."
Me: "But,...."

Bauer, the ex-Marine, then shoots me a look that nearly cut me in half. A sports writer once described Bauer's face as "a clenched fist." On that day I saw the fist about to smash into my face. I quickly moved along. I always wondered if Bauer took out his frustration with an illegible scrawl to the poor sap who was in line behind me. I also learned something about moodiness.

Paul

[jad22]

I think you should let it go. I had Bill Russell (Celtics) sign a couple of team signed photographs that were missing only his signature. Of course a sharpie was used and all the vintage signatures were ballpoint. Looks out of place. They are not my favorite pieces.

[bender07]

Originally Posted by perezfan

Agree....

Why would you even consider letting them "hold you hostage" for that obscene amount of money?

Mays' current signature doesn't even resemble the 1960 version. And even if he signed flawlessly (a big "if"), it would stand out like a sore thumb, and subsequently ruin the ball.

You have a very nice vintage piece there. The stamped Mays signature is part of the Ball's heritage, so try to be content with that. There are thousands of other Mays signed items available at a fraction of that outlandish price. So if you must have a modern Mays autograph, try to obtain one without corrupting a great vintage ball or paying 20 times what it is worth.

Nailed it. The signature would look totally out of place and he would unquestionably ruin it. I was in line for Mays once and a guy had a multi-signed bat that he wrapped up in packaging paper with just a small part of the bat exposed for Mays' signature. This was 15 years ago so his eye sight was okay. Imagine all of that effort to pay someone hundreds of dollars.

Let the ball be.