(o/t) world's' fastest shrinking autographs?

[bscott]

(this thread is a bit off-topic and surely belongs in the autograph forum, but i think it's a fun nugget to chew on for fun. I'm probably not the first to bring this up, but...)

Is it me or do the young baseball players of today seem to have ever-shrinking signatures?

What's up with the kids these days?

I have noticed that some of the game's "future stars" have signatures that are not only barely legible, but are just initials, at best.

Just two examples: SF Giants pitcher Tim Lincecum and Mets prospect Fernando Martinez.

Could this be a result of the heavy demands of off-season "sticker signings" for all the "autographed" baseball cards made today?


I think of old-timers like Killebrew, Ted Williams, Koufax, DiMaggio, Mantle even... these guys signed their names. Legibly.

Imagine a Ted Williams signed ball, bat or jersey that just had a sloppy "TW" scribbled on it.

Imagine if Mickey Mantle just signed "MM."

Even old Babe Ruth signatures appear carefully written. The Babe even included legible quote marks (" ") around his moniker.

Now, I'm only picking on a handful of people. Many modern star players and rookies sign their complete name, legibly.

And no doubt modern ballplayers have greater signing demands.

But did any old-time ballplayer ever just sign their initials?

I can't think of one, offhand.




Finally, have you ever NOT purchased a game-used item because it had a sloppy or unappealing autograph?

I think of a recent post showing a Gary Sheffield bat with his scribble all over the barrel. I wouldn't want that bat. But at least Gary signs his full name.


-bscott.

[kylehess10]

Finally, have you ever NOT purchased a game-used item because it had a sloppy or unappealing autograph?

I think of a recent post showing a Gary Sheffield bat with his scribble all over the barrel. I wouldn't want that bat. But at least Gary signs his full name.


-bscott.

I noticed that about a month ago in Historic Auctions. They had a Rafael Furcal game used NLDS Braves bat, which I was willing to bid high on, but Furcal inscribed it accidently with "2000 NLDS GAME USED" instead of "2003 NLDS GAME USED" and he simply scribbled a "3" on top of the "0". It was hidious and it was what stopped me from bidding

[mwbosoxfan]

Reggie Jackson is another one who signs with pretty good clarity. I've heard him say more than once on a couple of different occasions something to the effect of "Don't bump me or it won't be any good."

[kingjammy24]

"What's up with the kids these days?
...
Could this be a result of the heavy demands of off-season "sticker signings" for all the "autographed" baseball cards made today?"

maybe a little. i'm sure it's a variety of factors. i imagine the main one is the societal shift away from handwriting in general and the consequent decrease in the value of good penmanship. before the days of keyboards, mice, trackballs, and touch screens, handwriting was prevalent and good penmanship played an important role. penmanship was highly unique and made an impression on others so i imagine that many worked hard on their penmanship. these days, there's little reason to even pick up a pen anymore. touch-typing, moreso than handwriting, seems to naturally give way to truncations.

it's only going to get worse. unlike in babe ruth or ted williams' day, there's little emphasis, value, or focus placed on handwriting these days.

"Finally, have you ever NOT purchased a game-used item because it had a sloppy or unappealing autograph?"

i think so. the thing that really bothers me is when a game-used jersey or bat will have tons of mediocre stats written all over it. i saw an ESM frank thomas bat and the entire barrel was ruined with frank putting the stats from his 2007 season on it. these weren't career highs or record breakers; 26 hr, 95 rbi, .277 avg. .377 OBP 2007. blue jays #35. BFD right? the barrel was completely ruined, ballmarks written over just so that some completely mediocre stats could be written on there. i'm all for "game used" inscriptions. i'm all for a record breaking number inscribed if its going on the item that was used to break the record - eg: mcgwire writing #62 on the bat he actually used to hit #62. however what is the purpose of writing a litany of banal stats all over a game-used item? it just ruins it. personally, i like an item to remain as close to the state it was when it last left the field. thomas didn't go to bat with tons of stats written on the barrel so i wouldn't want my thomas gamer to have it. i'm surprised ESM didn't ask him to write an impromptu haiku on the other end of the bat and maybe the names of all of his neighbors and friends on the handle. if you're going to crap the thing up, then really do a number on it; have frank draw some smiley faces, put his little league and college stats on, slap some britney spears stickers on it, etc. make it so you can't even see any of the game-use anymore. who needs to see a sweet ballmark or the ball leather that actually stuck to the bat when instead you can see the fact that he hit a mighty 95 rbi!
alright i'm all worked up now. time to go water the chia pet.

rudy.

[joelsabi]

I like milestone items with inscription specific to the feat. Career stats on a game used item seem far fetched as well as year stats on a game used item (unless you were MVP or Triple Crown winner). It is not like all the at bats were from that one bat. Might as well put year stats on a issued bat instead of a game used bat. I like the Keep It Short Simple.

Why the abreviated autographs. I think it comes down to several factors: Amount of Education, Culture, Hip Hop mentality, Tagging culture etc. I imagine that players know their demand of signatures at games make autographs quicker to get to more fans. Most of the time I think its the rush factor.

I bet if every player made more money doing autograph session at cardshows than their player contracts, players would work on their penmanship. For some of the old timers this was true.

[bigtruck260]

There are several Cardinals players who have actaully worked on better sigs since they have been here:

Albert Pujols and Jim Edmonds come to mind. Especially if Albert is paid - even his sticker autos for card products were top notch. They make the cards look cool. Jim just had a bad a$$ sig to begin with.

Yadier Molina ruined his great autograph.

Dave

[kingjammy24]

here's a good example:

http://www.lrmemo.com/product_p/dw-gu-fg-extreme.htm

a really nice david wright glove with great provenance that unfortunately looks much worse due to the big, cockamamey inscription all over the leather.

wright's decent season stats for '04; nothing for the record books or even close. all of that nice game-used leather is permanently altered just so i can constantly know that wright hit a mammoth 14 HR and stole a blazing 6 bases. definitely worth it.

the topper is the "1st mlb season" part after he's already put "game used rookie year". thank goodness he wrote "1st mlb season" because "rookie year" had me totally confused. he was just writing for the sake of writing! he could've just signed it with his autograph and a "rookie gamer" inscription all on 1 line and saved the rest of the glove. i'm surprised he didn't also write the MLB rules for what qualifies as a rookie season.

i'd rather have wright everything he wants onto a letter and have the letter go with a nice, unadulterated glove. i've seen some david wright bats that look like he tried to write the great american novel.

rudy.

[OaklandAsFan]

Reggie Jackson is another one who signs with pretty good clarity. I've heard him say more than once on a couple of different occasions something to the effect of "Don't bump me or it won't be any good."

He does that now but when he was in his last year in Oakland I have about 10 different examples of his signature and each one was different. I have a sweet spot that contains his entire perfect signature I have one that says Reggie J. another one that says Reg Jackson. Another one that you can read R Jackson and another that that has Reg Jack legible

[BergerKing22784]

Andruw Jones is another one whos signature has actrually gotten better as his career has gone on. it started off as A-- J-- now you get Andruw J- .......