Photo matched PR4192 Rose bat with surprise!!!!

[tacprc]

... He began to tell me how awful the autograph looked and how much he hated it. I died laughing because I told him I almost didn't buy the bat because of the signature. It's doesn't look that bad in this photo, but in person it's bad. ... Bill

Just to be clear, when you say "bad", do you mean fake or just unattractive in some way? Thanks.

[schubert1970]

Just to be clear, when you say "bad", do you mean fake or just unattractive in some way? Thanks.

Unattractive. Just not a typical looking Pete sig when using a paint stick, and too large.

[tacprc]

Unattractive. Just not a typical looking Pete sig when using a paint stick, and too large.

OK. Thanks.

[emann]

Just reading this post for the first time. Bill, awesome bat & story...

[tacprc]

Here is a better view. This is a pic of Alou in the on deck circle from 1993. If Alou was standing up, the Beckett cover would be almost identical.

I've also included an overhead pic of Veterans stadium so you can see where the photographers are compared to the on deck circle. The photographers at that time were on the right end of the dugout (visitor side).

I believe that Three Rivers Stadium had a similar green background. I found one decent photo that shows the wall behind home plate.

I am not sure, but I think that the pictures for these two baseball cards were also snapped at Three Rivers.

[schubert1970]

I believe that Three Rivers Stadium had a similar green background. I found one decent photo that shows the wall behind home plate.

I am not sure, but I think that the pictures for these two baseball cards were also snapped at Three Rivers.

Above the green padding there are no bars in Pete's pic. The cards clearly show bars above the green padding.

[tacprc]

Above the green padding there are no bars in Pete's pic. The cards clearly show bars above the green padding.

Yeah, that's a good point. Like I said, I am not sure where those baseball card photos were snapped.

They could have been taken in spring training. Since 1969 McKechnie Field in Bradenton, FL, has been the spring training home of the Pirates. From what I have seen on the internet and perhaps in other Fleer baseball cards, it has green walls.

Note: The Reds played one spring training game against the Pirates at McKechnie Field in 1985.

I would like to see a better picture of the green wall behind home plate at Three Rivers Stadium. From the one good picture that I posted, there don't appear to be any railings behind home plate -- just a protective net.

[Tim+Jeff]

Great match looks like it.

[tacprc]

I have been exchanging emails with photographer Bob Bartosz for the past 10 days. Here's a conglomeration of what he has told me thus far.

"I did 100 baseball cards for Donruss when they put out their first set in 1981. Donruss were paying $3.00 to $5.00 for photos for cards, and they had Many Many freelancers sending in 100's of photos hoping they would use one -- just to say they had their photo on a BB card.

Then Fleer hired me and two other photographers in 1982; we were the only staff baseball photographers working full-time for Fleer Corp.

They did buy a few photos from freelancers from time to time but not many. I had over 40 plus percent of the photos used in each set. Also I did a lot of photos for their Football card sets.

My wife and I would go to Spring Training in Florida each year in February and March. I had all the teams on Florida's West Coast. Another Fleer photographer had the East Coast. The third guy had the West Coast teams also.

My wife was their proof reader from 1982 to 88. We both stopped working for them after that.

All three of us Fleer photographers keep a low profile -- not bragging about what we did. The freelancers bragged about just getting into a ballpark. I could get into the club house and locker rooms and on the field at any time for any ballpark in the NL and AL.

All the photos were taken with Kodak Slide Film that Fleer bought for us. We used over 500 rolls or more each year.

Kodak did all the developing. There were 36 slides per roll.

++++++

I was always in the dugout when I took photos. No one was permitted on the field.

In 1985 I was at spring training and at games all over from April to October.

All the 1985 photos would be for 1986 cards.

Fleer and Topps cards were printed by the same printer in Pennsylvania. Printing started in November and December. The new cards came out in February.

Fleer also put out special sets in 1985 using the 1985 spring training and 1985 game photos we took, but the Set and Wax pack cards were based on the photos from the year before.

++++

I took thousands of baseball photos during 30 plus years and to remember a place and time of a player just standing there would be hard to do. If it were a great play or event, then Yes. I have so many photos of Rose just standing by himself.

When I was taking photos for Fleer Corp Baseball Cards, I would take 25 to 50 rolls of film a week. I liked to take photos of games, rather than posing players just standing.

That Beckett color photo was on Kodak Slide Film. I sold all my Slides, 50 or 60 thousand of them, about 10 or so years ago.

For more info you would need to ask Beckett. I put my name and the date on my photos, and marked the place on the back of the photo or slide."

[schubert1970]

Take a look at this interview.

http://www.wlwt.com/video/23964386/index.html

I'm glad they actually have some footage of the bats. There is no #14 on top of the PR4192 so I could have told you the x-ray would have been negative. I don't know why they even bothered to scan an ATHL bat, these have never been questioned about cork.

And at the very least Pete himself verifies the findings.

JT recenlty told me a collector of his x-rayed their PR4192 and found cork, but he doesn't want to come forward.