Why our autograph experts are often silent

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by Hankphenom

That was my point, Scott, and I don't know what you find personal in my response. You can disagree about any autograph with any authenticator, and that's fine, we all do it. And Kevin will be the first to tell you that none of them is perfect, they all make mistakes. But to put his name in the same title with "forgery" implies that he knowingly had something to do with a forgery, and that's just not true, it's something he would never do.

Thanks for the clarification. Stand-alone, the title did sound bad, but the post was clear that I thought his name was being thrown out there to sell a forgery and that I didn't believe he had authenticated it. Now I'm seeing that there is a photo of a Keating LOA in the listing. I didn't notice it before or I probably would have pursued this differently.

I'm very well aware of how collectors here respond to anyone questioning a respected hobbyist or seller (in this case, both) - the reaction is always one of support for the seller/hobbyist and antagonism toward the person doing the questioning. 100% of the time. Given that I have absolutely nothing to gain by outing a bad Babe Ruth signature, I generally avoid such situations - nothing productive will come out of the discussion, as no one is focused on the item in question. Not questioning Keating's or the seller's ethics, but he could have written 'Babe Ruth' on the ball himself, and if it had a Keating letter, I believe that collectors here would defend it, or minimally not say anything at all.