The quality of modern player autographs is worthless.

RonBurgundy · July 15, 2007 9:52AM

I won an Alexander Ovechkin signed photo at the local card shop over the weekend and the signature is basically an unreadable scribble. I have thought for some time that the overwhelming majority of modern player autographs are nothing more than worthless, illegible pieces of chickenscratch. It's hard for me think of a current player in any sport that has a signature you can actually read (Sosa is kind of legible), but in any event they are few and far between. Contrast this to the great signatures of Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, and others. Yes, I know that the modern athlete is badgered 1000 times more for autographs than guys from the past but really, how hard is it to sign your name so someone can actually read it? It's yet another reason why anything of recent ilk is meaningless to me.

Ron

yawie99 · July 15, 2007 10:01AM

Ovechkin does have one of the worst sigs I've ever seen.

Today's athletes probably are hounded more than their predecessors, but I'd guess that handwriting in general has deteriorated over the last century due to the rise of technology. Still, it'd be nice of some of these guys took a bit more pride in their penmanship.

lawnmowerman · July 15, 2007 10:08AM

Heres a great auto by Mr 4ww WP

elsnorto · July 15, 2007 10:12AM

Yowza! That Mays is awful compared to the typical sigs I have seen from him. Then again, when you have a few hundred cards and/or stickers to sign at one sitting, I am sure the sig looks different, for the worse, towards the end from sheer fatigue and/or boredom. Still, they are rewarded handsomely for their time, so that is no excuse... take a few days or weeks to work through the pile and give the fans something to be proud of.

With regards to modern players autographs, I tend to agree with yawie in that the quality of penmanship has dropped over the years, perhaps even more so as kids spend more time with a keyboard in hand than a pen when it comes to written communications.

Snorto~

Goodsport40 · July 15, 2007 10:20AM

Heres a great auto by Mr 4ww WP

Ron, you are so right on this. There are exceptions, but not many.

Robert

Lothar52 · July 15, 2007 10:36AM

Has that always been willie mays signature???? has he ever had a legible one???? Anybody know what the heck that stands for????

does look like 4ww WP

????

Loth

WinPitcher · July 15, 2007 10:37AM

They are all wannabe doctors.

Steve

RonBurgundy · July 15, 2007 10:38AM

Yeah, that's Willie's signature, and it's a pretty common example. He blazed the trail for all of the scribbles of today.

Ron

tkd7 · July 15, 2007 11:29AM

My favorite sig

Elemenopeo · July 15, 2007 11:42AM

These guys are the worst...

What the hell is that? They're using, like, completely different alphabets or something.

But seriously, I looked over my collection after reading this thread, and I gotta say it's true that with the majority of the retired guys you can make out every letter, but the same can be said for only a handful of the active players. Still, some of the illegible sigs have a bit of flair and style to them that help make up for it, I think. Kinda like the Kuo and Wang sigs. I can't read 'em, but they still look nice... to me, anyway.

BunchOBull · July 15, 2007 2:00PM

I have a 1970s Mays auto, looks identical to the modern sig. I'd like to see an early Mays signature.

mudflap02 · July 15, 2007 2:06PM

The Best:

(Always signs A. Nomar Garciaparra)

The Worst:

Morency is just so consistently hideous.

jmbkb4 · July 15, 2007 3:30PM

Frank Thomas has a really nice signature.

duner · July 15, 2007 3:34PM

It's not just the modern athlete, it's society in general. I wish I'd kept it, but there was a study I read a while back about the degradation of people's sigs, and basically it was a matter of there being no use for hand writing anymore since everything's done on computers...as such, logically the emphasis on hand writing in primary school increasingly loses its emphasis and is replaced by technology related curriculums.

In any instance, I'm a huge autograph hound, and I can't justify the prices for many athletes signatures. I do think there will be a huge schism in autograph collecting in the near future, much like there was in card collecting when the premium brands were introduced...and with there being a huge demand for attractive sigs and a very limited supply, prices will be reflected accordingly. You already see it in a lot of aspects...off the top of my head, gale sayers immediately comes to mind. You can easily identify which items of his were signed for a fee as opposed to which ones he did for free...and the aesthetic appeal differs immensely.

As for most modern athletes, they seem to have legible sigs early in their career...which is reduced to illegibility as time goes on. I know I find it interesting to look at my LSU collection. You can always tell the freshmen sigs from the upperclassmen merely by cursory inspection...by the time they sign their first deal with the card companies their signatures are unreadable, the only reason they can be identified are because their picture is on the card.

mudflap02 · July 15, 2007 3:44PM

Interesting take Duner. I think that so long as an auto is certified by the card companies, it will still be in demand. I do agree that for players who sign a lot, we may start seeing a premium for better looking sigs.

duner · July 15, 2007 3:58PM

You may be right mud flap....but as Tommy Boy astutely stated "But why do they put a guarantee on the box then? 'Cause they know all they sold you was a guaranteed piece of s**t. That's all it is, isn't it? Hey, if you want me to take a dump in a box and mark it "guaranteed", I will. I got spare time. But for now, for your customers' sake, for your daughter's sake you might wanna think about buying a quality product"

nam812 · July 15, 2007 8:21PM

What if the tooth fairy is a crazy glue sniffer?

TNTonPMS · July 15, 2007 8:50PM

Not only is Morency's sig hideous , it just plain lazy .
It would have been funny though if his name started with an X

PasadenaMudSlide · July 15, 2007 10:33PM

It would have been funny though if his name started with an X

Like Jake Blues?

gonzer · July 15, 2007 10:40PM

Nolan Ryan's is among the most legible around.

FavreFan1971 · July 15, 2007 11:02PM

Favre's is pretty easy for his first name.

Ingle Martin is terrible

thekid8 · July 15, 2007 11:59PM

One of the best sigs then and now

RipublicaninMass · July 16, 2007 12:12AM

I can make out a D and an O

JeremyDie1 · July 16, 2007 12:21AM

<< <i>I can make out a D and an O

>>

Fabfrank · July 16, 2007 1:05AM

The old-time players are the best. They really take pride in their signatures and some have even stated that they feel their autograph is a reflection of their accomplishments. You can check out my NFL HOF set to see some sharp signatures Fabfrank's NFL HOF Auto set
Bart Starr, Paul Hornung and Chuck Bednarik are a few great signatures that come to mind. IMO the all-time best is the late Hank Bauer. Met him at a card show 10 years ago and gave my 6 year old son a free autograph baseball. His handwriting and signature would make a Catholic school nun proud

BunchOBull · July 16, 2007 1:09AM

<< <i>Frank Thomas has a really nice signature. >>

Frank's signature was amazing in the early years, but since the back to back MVPs, it's been a progressively downward spiral. Two loops and a scribble.

mudflap02 · July 16, 2007 1:13AM

I think Ortiz signs with the name "David Arias." Or not.

Agreed on Bauer - his stuff is always perfect. Charlie Gehringer is another that springs to mind.

clydecoolidge · July 16, 2007 2:53AM

I recently got a J.J. Hardy signed ball...it looks like Zoro signed it.

lawnmowerman · July 16, 2007 3:58AM

<< <i>Favre's is pretty easy for his first name.

Ingle Martin is terrible

>>

If my first name was Ingle, I would just scribble something illegible too!

BobaFett72 · July 16, 2007 4:15AM

That WIllie Mays looks like Austin Powers signed it.. groovy baby!

1989FleerBillRipkencollector · July 16, 2007 5:00AM

Great Thread. Love the different Alphabet comment !!!

His sig changed from when he signed contract. 1st name went to just a J. Guess he gets alot of requests. LOL

alnavman · July 16, 2007 5:03AM

I wish I had a digital camera to take a picture of the poster that I got from Renata Galasso back in the 70's that is signed by Willie Mays. It is a nice signature....if I remember correctly I got the poster for free when I ordered the set from them...don't remember which set or what year. The poster is number 5/1000, they used to give out signed items to the first folks who purchased the whole set from them....wish I still had all my old books from them.....

al.

alnavman · July 16, 2007 5:20AM

found these in my collection, they are not too bad.....

alnavman · July 16, 2007 5:23AM

and then I would have been hard pressed to identify this as George Brett's signature without his picture being there, and I actually was watching him sign the photo!!!

SlangNRox · July 16, 2007 5:46AM

Since theres no basketball cards listed I thought I'd post some.

Heres some from this years Finest basketball

Heres a few more terrible autos

is this even an auto?

Now heres some of my favorites.

John Havlicek

BunchOBull · July 16, 2007 11:53AM

Ok, this post is to attempt embedding images for the first time, and also to show off a half way legible Willie Mays signature I found in an old box of items I purchased in the 90s. I believe this is a 1980s era signature.

The next is one of my favorite autographs.

Thanks for looking. Hope this works.

Ross

BunchOBull · July 17, 2007 12:22AM

Here's the back of the Nolan Ryan card. It's funny how you can contrast Nolan's beautiful signature with Greg Maddux's absolutely horrid scribble.

mudflap02 · July 17, 2007 4:19AM

Haha, "nook hornets." I think I knew a girl who had that.

orutulsa · July 17, 2007 4:59AM

For a long time I've wished that the card companies would refuse to pay a guy his fee if it was obvious he was frivolous and careless with his signature. They need to have some sort of quality guidelines in place. Vernand Morency shouldn't have been paid a dime by the card companies for his "v". I do like certified autos, but I never buy one that's just a guy's initials or basically an illegible scrawl.

rube26105 · July 17, 2007 6:56PM

agreed,most of the new guys in any sports are terrible signers,like a doctors handwriting, at least back in the old days they took the time to write their name instead of a couple of scribbles that look like a foreign language

ebayaddict · July 18, 2007 4:04AM

I am more concerned with the quanity of these autos........too many available, and more and more on the way. Thats great for most, not so good if you want to have a somewhat rare piece, or an auto with some value.

The quality of modern player autographs is worthless.

Comments