HELP! Identifying Inherited Autographed Baseballs

MikeAnto

Hey everyone,

Thanks for taking the time to look at this post. My uncle recently passed away and part of his extensive collection were some autographed baseballs without any information. I know nothing about baseball or autographs and would love some help from this expert community identifying who these signatures belong to.

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8
#9
#10
#11
#12

Thank you in advance,
Mike

Kepper19

was the uncle from Minnesota? I just looked at pic #1 and that looks to be ex-Twin utility player Nick Punto, who did wear #8 -- I will take a look at the others and see if they could be Twins as well

countdouglas

Ball #8 is Scott Erickson

MikeAnto

@Kepper19 said:
was the uncle from Minnesota? I just looked at pic #1 and that looks to be ex-Twin utility player Nick Punto, who did wear #8 -- I will take a look at the others and see if they could be Twins as well

Yes he was! Huge Twins fan. I would assume most of them are former Twins players.

MikeAnto

@countdouglas said:
Ball #8 is Scott Erickson

Thank you!

countdouglas

Ball #12 is Kent Hrbek

countdouglas

Ball #9 is HOFer jack Morris

AFLfan

Ball #9 is Jack Morris

Ball #6 is Rollie Fingers

Ball #3 is Dave Goltz (pretty sure)

countdouglas

Ball #5 is Scott Leius (I think)

countdouglas

Ball #4 is Kyle Gibson

Kepper19

some have been covered, but these are my best guesses:

1 - Nick Punto
2 - Boof Bonser
3 - Dave Goltz
4 - Kyle Gibson
5 - Scott Leius
8 - Scott Erickson
9 - Jack Morris
11 - Glen Perkins
12 - Kent Hrbek

MikeAnto

@countdouglas said:
Ball #12 is Kent Hrbek

Thank you!

MikeAnto

@countdouglas said:
Ball #9 is HOFer jack Morris

Thank you!

MikeAnto

@AFLfan said:
Ball #9 is Jack Morris

Ball #6 is Rollie Fingers

Ball #3 is Dave Goltz (pretty sure)

Thank you!

MikeAnto

@countdouglas said:
Ball #5 is Scott Leius (I think)

Thank you!

MikeAnto

@countdouglas said:
Ball #4 is Kyle Gibson

Thank you!

MikeAnto

@Kepper19 said:
some have been covered, but these are my best guesses:

1 - Nick Punto
2 - Boof Bonser
3 - Dave Goltz
4 - Kyle Gibson
5 - Scott Leius
8 - Scott Erickson
9 - Jack Morris
11 - Glen Perkins
12 - Kent Hrbek

Wow, thank you!

Kepper19

this is a cool site that gives you all the players who have worn various uniform numbers, so a good place to research if a player adds his uni # to his auto

https://baseball-almanac.com/teams/baseball_uniform_numbers.php?t=MIN

MikeAnto

@Kepper19 said:
this is a cool site that gives you all the players who have worn various uniform numbers, so a good place to research if a player adds his uni # to his auto

https://baseball-almanac.com/teams/baseball_uniform_numbers.php?t=MIN

Fantastic, thanks for the resource!

SDSportsFan

Ball #10 is Joe Nathan.

Steve

GilR

Another idea: figure out which years the balls could be from based on when the identified players were with the Twins, and then look for photos of Twins team balls from the time. Morris was only with the Twins in 1991, so that would be an obvious year to check. Using eBay's listings for "Minnesota Twins autographed baseball" I found several current listings, and if you look at the "Sold" listings there should be more. This one from 1991 looks potentially useful:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124504726740?hash=item1cfd0f5cd4:g:DsUAAOSwjN5f6jNn

MikeAnto

@SDSportsFan said:
Ball #10 is Joe Nathan.

Steve

Much appreciated!

MikeAnto

@GilR said:
Another idea: figure out which years the balls could be from based on when the identified players were with the Twins, and then look for photos of Twins team balls from the time. Morris was only with the Twins in 1991, so that would be an obvious year to check. Using eBay's listings for "Minnesota Twins autographed baseball" I found several current listings, and if you look at the "Sold" listings there should be more. This one from 1991 looks potentially useful:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/124504726740?hash=item1cfd0f5cd4:g:DsUAAOSwjN5f6jNn

Great advice, thanks so much!

swish54

7 is Aaron Hicks