1939 Play Ball Moe Berg Autograph: Anyone Know Japanese?

Liberate Baltimore · Dec 31, 2011

This is my 1939 Play Ball Moe Berg autograph card. The English signature has already been given the thumbs up by JSA. For our Japanese linguists on board...what do those characters say? Thanks in advance,

James

George_Calfas · Dec 31, 2011

Ty Hope does

BrewerSuperCollector · Dec 31, 2011

Pic is only a red X. I would love to see that card. How much did it set you back?

fkw · Dec 31, 2011

it may just be his name spelled out in the Japanese letters. Common to sign both, especially it it was for American person

When I was playing baseball in Japan we used to trade autographed programs/balls/photos with the other teams, and they ALWAYS signed with the same type of single Japanese letter as on your card, but they also signed their names with "ABC" type letters as well, so really signed their name twice, they all did this. And another interesting thing is many of the younger generation cant even read/write the more traditional Japanese symbols (the real intricate square based type that involve multiple words per symbol).

I have a few hapa Japanese facebook friends here in Hawaii, I'll see if they can decipher it or maybe their grandparents can...

nice card

BrewerSuperCollector · Dec 31, 2011

Am I the only one that can't see it?

prospectorgems · Dec 31, 2011

BrewerSuperCollector said:
Am I the only one that can't see it?

I also cannot

scotty21690 · Dec 31, 2011

jeremy · Dec 31, 2011

looks to me like it says "im turning japanese"

weird

Ty Hope · Dec 31, 2011

It says "Morris Berg" in Japanese. ???????

Liberate Baltimore · Dec 31, 2011

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it. So, in fact, this card is double-signed? FKW, I've handled hundreds of Berg autographs in my 25+ years in the hobby...but never one signed in Japanese. Is this more common than I think? I hope everyone can see the image now. Thanks to all of those who helped re-post it. I don't know where I messed up.

James

Ty Hope · Dec 31, 2011

It could either be double signed, or more likely the person who owned the card wrote his name in Japanese themselves as a translation.

Liberate Baltimore · Dec 31, 2011

I got this out of a Washington DC era scrapbook from 1939. JSA has already evaluated the auto as "Authentic" so I'm not sure it makes sense someone would write his name in Japanses characters with the same writing instrument. Especially since Berg was confirmed as having been bilingual.

Ty Hope · Dec 31, 2011

Liberate Baltimore said:
I got this out of a Washington DC era scrapbook from 1939. JSA has already evaluated the auto as "Authentic" so I'm not sure it makes sense someone would write his name in Japanses characters with the same writing instrument. Especially since Berg was confirmed as having been bilingual.

If he was bilingual then its probably a double auto.

I had figured some fan got his auto IP and then wrote his name in Japanese next to it.

Topnotchsy · Dec 31, 2011

As my Avatar illustrates, big Berg fan here. That card is awesome!!

MaineMule · Dec 31, 2011

...sweet card and great to get the translation.

My 19 year old (soph. in college now) and I are were reminiscing today that he did a "who am I" project in like 4th or 5th grade and he picked Moe Berg

if you can believe it. He is a huge baseball fan and history buff so it was a great selection by him.

Liberate Baltimore · Dec 31, 2011

Thanks for the help Ty Hope!

TwinGnats · Jan 1, 2012

I'm in the middle of reading "The Catcher was a Spy", excellent book I reccommend to everyone, Berg was quite a complex person.

TomMurry · Jan 1, 2012

Ty Hope said:
It says "Morris Berg" in Japanese. ???????

Morisu Baagu
LOVE IT!

Topnotchsy · Jan 1, 2012

TwinGnats said:
I'm in the middle of reading "The Catcher was a Spy", excellent book I reccommend to everyone, Berg was quite a complex person.

Really amazing story. I read, "Moe Berg, Athlete, Scholar, Spy" a while back, and recently came across him in "American Prometheus," a book about Oppenheimer and the atom bomb. Berg apparently was sent to follow Heisener and if the Germans were getting too close to the bomb, was to kill him.

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