Best Autos in Baseball

[bear0555]

In my opinion for an autograph to be one of the best it has to be legible out of context. Here is what I mean by that. Some of the "best" autographs presented in this thread are artistic and flow well but if they weren't on a baseball or baseball related item nobody would know who the hell they were. Look at the McGwire or Olerud examples listed. If you had those autographs on an index card and showed them to a sixth grade class nobody would be able to decipher who the hell they are, period. Look at Ruth, Williams, Mantle, etc... You could read their names on anything and know who signed it. The players are just lazy now and somehow got it into their heads that sloppy is the "in" thing. And before anyone says, "Well, the new players have to sign more," blah, blah, blah, know that there isn't an active player alive that has signed 1/10th the amount of autographs that any of the above players listed signed, and that includes the ridiculous sticker sheets they go thru.

I've never understood why anyone would want an autograph that they have to explain to people who it is because it looks like it was signed by a chimp.

You can't understand someone collecting their favorite player? Good thing all my autos are on cards that have pictures and the player's name so I don't have to take the time to explain who signed the card.

I can understand wanting to collect your favorite player. What I can't understand is why that player doesn't take the time to sign legibly. McGwire has been one of my favorite players since the 49 he put up in 1987 but the nicest thing I can say about his autograph is that it "flows well." Let me ask you, if you had his auto on an index card and asked a non baseball fan to print the name on the card how close to you think they would get? M-----? That being said, McGwire's autograph is still more legible than some of the kids coming up but that isn't saying much.

Ideally, I prefer

1. Legible and artistic (Andre Dawson)
2. Illegible and artistic (Bannister)
3. Legible and unartistic (Angel Villalona)
4. Illegible and unartistic (Maddux)

The illegible and artistic has to be my favorite. I strongly disagree an autograph has to be legible to be one of the "best". An autograph or signature should be a representation of the person who is signing. Not everybody will be as neat and orderly as many of the past players are and frankly, I find some of those autographs boring. That's not to say that I don't like autographs that are legible, but an autograph should not be a player's neatest work of cursive. My favorite autograph of all time has to be jay buhner's as it's truly a work of art and very eye appealing.

 

[Krom]

In my opinion for an autograph to be one of the best it has to be legible out of context. Here is what I mean by that. Some of the "best" autographs presented in this thread are artistic and flow well but if they weren't on a baseball or baseball related item nobody would know who the hell they were. Look at the McGwire or Olerud examples listed. If you had those autographs on an index card and showed them to a sixth grade class nobody would be able to decipher who the hell they are, period. Look at Ruth, Williams, Mantle, etc... You could read their names on anything and know who signed it. The players are just lazy now and somehow got it into their heads that sloppy is the "in" thing. And before anyone says, "Well, the new players have to sign more," blah, blah, blah, know that there isn't an active player alive that has signed 1/10th the amount of autographs that any of the above players listed signed, and that includes the ridiculous sticker sheets they go thru.

I've never understood why anyone would want an autograph that they have to explain to people who it is because it looks like it was signed by a chimp.

You can't understand someone collecting their favorite player? Good thing all my autos are on cards that have pictures and the player's name so I don't have to take the time to explain who signed the card.

I can understand wanting to collect your favorite player. What I can't understand is why that player doesn't take the time to sign legibly. McGwire has been one of my favorite players since the 49 he put up in 1987 but the nicest thing I can say about his autograph is that it "flows well." Let me ask you, if you had his auto on an index card and asked a non baseball fan to print the name on the card how close to you think they would get? M-----? That being said, McGwire's autograph is still more legible than some of the kids coming up but that isn't saying much.

Ideally, I prefer

1. Legible and artistic (Andre Dawson)
2. Illegible and artistic (Bannister)
3. Legible and unartistic (Angel Villalona)
4. Illegible and unartistic (Maddux)

The illegible and artistic has to be my favorite. I strongly disagree an autograph has to be legible to be one of the "best". An autograph or signature should be a representation of the person who is signing. Not everybody will be as neat and orderly as many of the past players are and frankly, I find some of those autographs boring. That's not to say that I don't like autographs that are legible, but an autograph should not be a player's neatest work of cursive. My favorite autograph of all time has to be jay buhner's as it's truly a work of art and very eye appealing.

I still think Tris Speaker has the best sig. His is a great example of #1
http://cgi.ebay.com/TRIS-SPEAKER-REPROD ... 4cf34ef24c

 

[joey12508]

 

[Sean_C]

Villalona's signature has been all over the map, from the block letters used when he first arrived to the slightly more artistic one found on his 2008 BC cards, to the almost checkmark type one he used in person for a while:

Image from eBay

As for my vote for best signature in baseball, these get my vote:

Current: Evan Longoria
Retired: Andre Dawson
All time: Babe Ruth (such a great classic signature, despite all of the times he had to sign it)

 

[elmalo]

[quote="LaBlueFan":3tz47ee3][quote="blitzerlover":3tz47ee3][quote="cartersprings":3tz47ee3]

The third one cracks me up the most. He had a good auto, then just scribbled all over it for no reason.

WTF???????

A card company actually released that GARBAGE..?????

"BF ny" ????? and did Villalonas' 4 year old cousin sign that for him????? and Blitzerlover is right....the 3rd Signature is pretty nice,
until Angels 4 year old cousin scribbled on it........ I would have been pretty upset if I had pulled that card.

I don't own one, but I think Nolan Ryan has one of the nicest "Sigs" ever put on anything.

Mariano Riveras' is really nice too. I have one of those that I got on a bag in the Alcatraz Gift Shop, when the Yankees were in town to play
the A's a few years back while vacationing with the Family.

You have to realize that a lot of those guys dont have the best schooling.

Don't they only get basic English and Writing before they come to the states? I wouldn't blast the foreign kids too hard on this one.

Probably, but signatures in Spanish look the same as signatures in English.[/quote:3tz47ee3]

+1

Not to "Blast" the Kids, but Come on....... I know alot of them grow up playing the game from a young age, like alot of American
Kids.
I know when I was a Kid, Having dreams of someday Playing for the Dodgers, and "Signing" Autographs, I would Practice signing
my name on everything.......Balls, Bats and baseball cards of Players I didn't care about.....Like Giants Players.

I know some of these kids come from small cities, and are sometimes forced to get a Job at a young age, and school is not important.
I didn't mean for my post to come off as a "Blast", just saying I would have been a Little Pissed-off if I had pulled that card.

Dave[/quote:3tz47ee3]
It's also very possible they never learned cursive. They may only have an elementary education, who knows what the schooling is like and where they came from. I bet some of them could even be illiterate.[/quote:3tz47ee3]
Exactly. These kids come from poverty, 3rd world poverty, unimaginable poverty compared to where we come from. They dont get nearly the same education.

 

[pudge1760]

Here are a couple of my favorite Rangers' Autos:

Elvis Andrus

Mitch Moreland

 

[bongo870]