Can someone help me with this auto?

67ShelbyGT500

Is this Mantle auto legit? Thanks.

67ShelbyGT500

Anybody?

RedHeart54

It could be but his auto has been faked so many times that one would need an expert to look for all of the subtle things that separates the reals from the fakes.

This ball is, however, an object lesson of why we should never use a sharpie to have baseballs signed.

milbroco

I am in way an expert or anything close but I will give my opinion. I do not like the "M" in Mantle. Is that an official league baseball? I think if it is, it would have signed for a collector, and they would have requested a ball pen signature because it would or should have been known to bleed with a Sharpie. When I was going to shows in the 1980's getting sigs of Mantle, DiMaggio, Williams, etc, not once did I get it in Sharpie and always requested it in ball point pen. It is possible though that it is real. Like I said, I am no expert.
Bob

67ShelbyGT500

Thanks for the observations. Long story sort of short, I got this ball back in the late 80's from a guy that I coached HS football with. He knew I was a collector and he kept telling me he was going to give me a Mantle ball because he had several at his parent's house. I knew he probably had some because he is from Commerce, OK (Mick's hometown) and at that time they had an annual wood bat HS baseball tourney that Mantle would make an appearance at occasionally. It was called the Mickey Mantle Classic. Of course Mantle signed anything and everything for the guys playing in the tournament. So this is the ball that he brought to me. I really appreciated that he gave me the ball although I knew that it had limited value, if any, because of the condition of the signature. The ball is a Diamond brand made in Korea (commonly used in HS at that time). I really think it is authentic but I also have concerns about the "M" in Mantle, although I did see two authenticated balls on Google images that were exactly like this one. If it were real, would this ball have any value? It has been in a box now for about 28 years. Just curious what some people thought. Thanks and sorry for the rambling story.

scmavl

Aside from the M of Mantle and the overall size (he usually signed smaller), the sig looks pretty good.