One famous 'fake' Babe Ruth autograph

[Gary Dunaier]

Originally Posted by Gary Dunaier

If memory serves me right, the story was that Halper arranged for DiMaggio to "come along for the ride" while giving someone a tour of his collection. DiMaggio grudgingly agreed as long as there was no press. So when DiMaggio found out a reporter from Sports Collectors Digest was also going to be on the tour, he left - and from that moment Halper was on DiMaggio's permanent s***list.

Found the story... it appeared in Richard Ben Cramer's Joe DiMaggio: The Hero's Life, pages 464-465.

When Joe finished signing the baseball cards for Pinnacle, there were two hours left on his contract. And the company had nothing more for him to sign.

But they got an idea. They would run a nationwide contest, a promotion with Toys "R" Us, and the winners would get to meet Joe DiMaggio. In fact, the five winners would come to New York for a baseball weekend: a skybox at Yankee Stadium, lunch at Mickey Mantle's restaurant...and a tour of Barry Halper's storied baseball collection, with Joe DiMaggio as their special guide.

Joe agreed: he owed them, by contract. So, Pinnacle ran the promotion, and brought the winners to New York. It was June 4, 1994. The tour at Barry's house was the Saturday morning highlight. They showed up in five limousines: five winners and their five guests. And the Pinnacle people showed up, of course, and a handful of suits from Toys "R" Us. So there were quite a few cars out front. By the time Joe got to Halper's door, precisely at ten A.M., Barry could see, the Clipper was in a foul mood.

"How many people here - a hundred?"

"Joe, it's just ten people."

"Ten! I thought it was five."

"Well, five and a guest, and..."

"All right, all right."

"C'mon, Joe. Sharon's makin' your favorite lunch with the shrimp..."

So Joe walked in, the tour began. But it was not to be. Joe kept looking around, until he saw it: one of the suits. He was taking notes. Toys "R" Us had brought a reporter from Sports Collectors Digest. They were putting Joe on display.

Joe stopped in mid-sentence, and made for the front door. Halper ran after him, out the door, onto the front walk. "Joe! I didn't even know! It wasn't my idea. Joe! Listen!..."

But Joe wasn't going to listen. That was in his contract: no press. He got into his waiting car - and he was gone.

Halper was off the team, too.

The pages themselves can be seen here, on the Google Books site.