Ohtani CARDS are Mostly UNDERVALUED

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by BillyCoxDodgers3B

Such a disgusting autograph. With his star power, I wish he'd put a little bit into his own brand by at least adding some recognizable style to it.

Jeter's autograph is not up my alley, either, but you can at least spot it from a mile away. Even Trout's "autograph" is recognizable to so many (can't even be bothered to lift the Sharpie up between a whopping two-lettered autograph). Everyone is so concerned about their "brand". Definitely an overused, nausea-inducing term, but a stylistic, if not even legible autograph should be a part of that. That thing shown above is just a scrawl that an angry toddler could convincingly emulate without even meaning to.

Agreed. In Ohtani’s case his autograph in Japanese is way more legible and he actually writes out each character. It was only when he started doing his autograph in English that it became a mess, probably because he was just copying the sloppy way everyone else was doing it.

Sadaharu Oh’s approach was way different, his autograph in English is easier to read than his Japanese one. Times have changed.

[JollyElm]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

Agreed. In Ohtani’s case his autograph in Japanese is way more legible and he actually writes out each character.

Wow, that brings up an interesting question from this gaijin (had to look that one up). Is there a loose 'script' way of writing Japanese characters? The way an autograph in English doesn't comply with what each letter 'should' look like? That sorta thing?

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by JollyElm

Wow, that brings up an interesting question from this gaijin (had to look that one up). Is there a loose 'script' way of writing Japanese characters? The way an autograph in English doesn't comply with what each letter 'should' look like? That sorta thing?

There is, but it doesn’t get used much in autographs.

Ichiro is a good example. His name is formally written in kanji characters as 一郎 and is a fairly common first name. But when his name is written in Japanese they always used the simplified katakana characters as イチロー.

But his signature in Japanese is just a huge mess of squiggly lines and I can’t tell which version he is trying to write.

[bk400]

Regarding autographs, I have a baseball that Ozzie Smith autographed for me in person, 40 years ago, while I was leaning over the railing at Shea Stadium during warm ups. His signature was exactly the same as the ones I'm seeing today on his recently graded, hand-signed cards. I'm going to suspend any natural cynicism and say that there are some guys who still do things the right way, and they may not be the guys who made the most money playing baseball.

[bk400]

Sounds like Mr. Ohtani was monitoring this forum and saw people talking smack about him...

[seanofjapan]

Originally Posted by bk400

Sounds like Mr. Ohtani was monitoring this forum and saw people talking smack about him...

Walk off grand slams that put you in the 40-40 club sure are a good way to silence critics.

[Carter08]

Originally Posted by seanofjapan

Walk off grand slams that put you in the 40-40 club sure are a good way to silence critics.

Fastest ever to join the 40-40 club too, but here he’s viewed as not doing it the right way.