Therion/HoustonTeams4Me/Astro's fans

I often peruse Goodwill.com for interesting Memorabilia... sometimes at a good discount.

About 1 1/2 years ago I bought a vintage Reach baseball with blurry pictures on this site; turned out to be a 1938 Yankees Team Auto's ball with faded sigs, but I could read Dimaggio, Gehrig, Dickey, Gomez, McCarthy, etc......

Anyway, if you look at this link: http://www.shopgoodwill.com/auctions/Ni ... 27792.html

You'll see what looks like a non-printed, signed ball in one of the photo's... names I can recognize (I think) are Xavier Hernandez, Mark Portugal, Rich Scheid, and Thomas Howard... Xavier Hernandez, Mark Portugal and Rich Scheid only played together on the 'Stro's 1992... and Thomas Howard was only on the Stro's in 1997 (Baseball Reference.com is great for providing yearly Team Rosters)

1992 Astro's team roster: http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/HOU/1992.shtml

So I am wondering if this is perhaps a ball signed at different times? Regardless I don't plan to go after these balls so I thought I might let you guys know about it. There is another ball that has a clear Dave Justice sig, and according to the auction description only one ball seems to be printed, and those sigs are in light blue ink so the ball with Justice may be authentic too... I think its a lot of fun to get these balls and then identify the sigs, so if you decide to go for them, I hope there's a Bagwell in the future. If you do get these, it would be great to post the find when received...

As I said, I will defer to anyone that says that they may go after these, if nobody expresses interest I may do it.

Good luck!

Randy

To me, 3 of 4 look pre-printed...the only one that looks signed is the one with the giant, indiscernible mark on it.

edited...read the discription...

"only one baseball signature do not seem printed"

I think that means, all but one are pre-printed.

You're right.... As Emily Litella said... "Never Mind"...

Still, I wonder about the Stro's ball with Portugal, Hernandez and Howard on it. Very strange. I really thought that might be from a reunion show or something.

Moonlight Graham said:

You're right.... As Emily Litella said... "Never Mind"...

Still, I wonder about the Stro's ball with Portugal, Hernandez and Howard on it. Very strange. I really thought that might be from a reunion show or something.

Click to expand...

That is interesting. I agree that the goodwill site is a highly under-exploited resource. Though it kind of comes in waves sometimes.

Not gonna lie, one of those balls has some GREAT signatures on it.

If, they were indeed signatures and not printed on.

This picture has Ozzie Smith, Wally Joyner and Fred McGriff on it, amongst others.

If I could tell it was legit, would definitely be worth what it goes for.

That is not Xavier Hernandez's signature.



Nor is the other Rich Scheid.



In 1995 and 1996 both Portugal and Howard played for the Reds. I suspect you'll find the names on the ball are from the 1995 or 1996 Reds.

It looks like it is 1995.

Bret Boone
Pete Schourek
Jeff Brantley

It could be Xavier Hernandez, but it doesn't look like any of his signatures that I've seen before.

That's pretty much all I could identify.