Need Help Identifying Baseball Autographs
charliehustle14
Posts: 425 ✭✭✭
Hi Guys,
I'm revisiting a project I started 25 years ago, and wondered if I could get some help on identifying these autographs. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Some backstory: My dad worked with a gentleman in the '70's and '80's who was a very serious old school baseball autograph collector. Dad had an active baseball card collection during those years, but was not much of a sports autograph collector. They did share a mutual love of baseball and often traded baseball stories, plus updated each other on the latest acquisitions to their collections.
In 1990, this gentleman had a sudden illness and passed away. His widow knew that dad had some knowledge of sports memorabilia and asked him to help value the collection. I was in college at the time, and remember dad brought home the most incredible incredible autograph collection I had ever seen. There were Babe Ruth and other early HOF'er auto'ed baseballs, a couple albums full of HOF'er auto'ed photos, and what had to be 20,000 autographed 3x5 index cards for players from the early 1900's to the 1980's. I'm pretty sure that Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Thurman Munson, and some other big names were in the 3x5's. I was enough of a student of baseball and a pretty serious card collector (as my limited budget allowed) at this age to appreciate the extreme depth of the collection and the dedication it took to amass it.
Dad made several phone calls, did a bunch of research, assessed the value of the collection, and recommended a prominent (at the time) autograph and memorabilia dealer to sell to. The lady eventually sold to the dealer on his recommendation. She tried to pay dad for his time, but he said he was happy to do it for free.
Some months passed, and this gentleman's widow called the house to say that she found a box full of more autographs tucked back in a closet, and that she insisted that dad take them for free. I'm sure he protested, but he did end up bringing them home and told me I could have them. There were about 1,000 autographed 3x5's, several autographed photos, a few auto'ed cards, and tons of correspondence between him and retired players. He pretty much kept everything, including return envelopes from his TTM experiences. The single best piece in these "leftovers" was a Roger Maris 3x5, but there were several nice Hall of Famer's from the '50's through the '80's. The bulk of these autographs were from "common" players from the '40's, '50's, and '60's, but some went all the way back to the '20's.
I spent several weeks that summer trying to identify all the guys on the 3x5's, using the Baseball Almanac and at times, baseball cards with facsimile autographs. It was a lot of fun, but taxing at times, in the days before eBay and the World Wide Web. I've kept all of these autographs, and even tried to expand on the 3x5 collection myself Through The Mail in the early '90's. Until a few years ago, I had all of the autographs identified except for maybe 30 or so. Four to five years ago, I used eBay and baseball-reference.com to verify the work I did all those years ago, and narrowed it down to the few I show below that i'm unable to identify.
UPDATE: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 have been identified. Thanks guys!
Again, any guesses you guys have on these would be appreciated. Note that without exception, everything I've identified so far has been a baseball player or manager from no later than the '80's:
1) This one looks easy, as "Kenneth C. Johnson" is printed on both index cards at the bottom. However, I am unable to find anyone by this name having ever played in the Majors. Baseball-reference.com shows Kenneth Wandersee Johnson (1947-1952) and Kenneth Travis Johnson (1958-1970). It's a pretty distinctive signature. Perhaps it's in Sanskrit.
2) IDENTIFIED: Wally Millies
3) Dave ____?
4) IDENTIFIED: Dale Mitchell
5) IDENTIFIED: Ray Barker
6) IDENTIFIED: Bennie Daniels
7) Not a clue.
8) IDENTIFIED: Len Boehmer
9) IDENTIFIED: Frank Gustine
10) Glen _____?
Thanks!
Todd
I'm revisiting a project I started 25 years ago, and wondered if I could get some help on identifying these autographs. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Some backstory: My dad worked with a gentleman in the '70's and '80's who was a very serious old school baseball autograph collector. Dad had an active baseball card collection during those years, but was not much of a sports autograph collector. They did share a mutual love of baseball and often traded baseball stories, plus updated each other on the latest acquisitions to their collections.
In 1990, this gentleman had a sudden illness and passed away. His widow knew that dad had some knowledge of sports memorabilia and asked him to help value the collection. I was in college at the time, and remember dad brought home the most incredible incredible autograph collection I had ever seen. There were Babe Ruth and other early HOF'er auto'ed baseballs, a couple albums full of HOF'er auto'ed photos, and what had to be 20,000 autographed 3x5 index cards for players from the early 1900's to the 1980's. I'm pretty sure that Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Thurman Munson, and some other big names were in the 3x5's. I was enough of a student of baseball and a pretty serious card collector (as my limited budget allowed) at this age to appreciate the extreme depth of the collection and the dedication it took to amass it.
Dad made several phone calls, did a bunch of research, assessed the value of the collection, and recommended a prominent (at the time) autograph and memorabilia dealer to sell to. The lady eventually sold to the dealer on his recommendation. She tried to pay dad for his time, but he said he was happy to do it for free.
Some months passed, and this gentleman's widow called the house to say that she found a box full of more autographs tucked back in a closet, and that she insisted that dad take them for free. I'm sure he protested, but he did end up bringing them home and told me I could have them. There were about 1,000 autographed 3x5's, several autographed photos, a few auto'ed cards, and tons of correspondence between him and retired players. He pretty much kept everything, including return envelopes from his TTM experiences. The single best piece in these "leftovers" was a Roger Maris 3x5, but there were several nice Hall of Famer's from the '50's through the '80's. The bulk of these autographs were from "common" players from the '40's, '50's, and '60's, but some went all the way back to the '20's.
I spent several weeks that summer trying to identify all the guys on the 3x5's, using the Baseball Almanac and at times, baseball cards with facsimile autographs. It was a lot of fun, but taxing at times, in the days before eBay and the World Wide Web. I've kept all of these autographs, and even tried to expand on the 3x5 collection myself Through The Mail in the early '90's. Until a few years ago, I had all of the autographs identified except for maybe 30 or so. Four to five years ago, I used eBay and baseball-reference.com to verify the work I did all those years ago, and narrowed it down to the few I show below that i'm unable to identify.
UPDATE: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, and 9 have been identified. Thanks guys!
Again, any guesses you guys have on these would be appreciated. Note that without exception, everything I've identified so far has been a baseball player or manager from no later than the '80's:
1) This one looks easy, as "Kenneth C. Johnson" is printed on both index cards at the bottom. However, I am unable to find anyone by this name having ever played in the Majors. Baseball-reference.com shows Kenneth Wandersee Johnson (1947-1952) and Kenneth Travis Johnson (1958-1970). It's a pretty distinctive signature. Perhaps it's in Sanskrit.
2) IDENTIFIED: Wally Millies
3) Dave ____?
4) IDENTIFIED: Dale Mitchell
5) IDENTIFIED: Ray Barker
6) IDENTIFIED: Bennie Daniels
7) Not a clue.
8) IDENTIFIED: Len Boehmer
9) IDENTIFIED: Frank Gustine
10) Glen _____?
Thanks!
Todd
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Steve
5) Ray Barker
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Steve
Steve
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Hi, Not sure if I'm posting this correctly but I have a baseball autographed but have no idea who this may be. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Bill