When you think you’ve heard it all about items fans asks ballplayers to sign, think again.
Besides being a fun hobby, the sports trading card market can be a financial boon. A Mickey Mantle rookie 1952 Topps card sold in 2024 for $12.6 million. A T206 Honus Wagner card graded in near mint condition sold for $6.5 million. If you have a Shohei Ohtani rookie card from 2018, hold onto it tightly. A 2018 Bowman Chrome Red Refractor with his signature went for $900,000.
Years back, as kids grew up and lost interest in their trading cards mostly stored in shoeboxes, more than a few mothers were guilty of tossing out the collections. That’s when cards were saved for fun. Today, it’s all about potential cash value, and the cards are guarded in bank safe boxes.
Having a ballplayer sign a card, or two, or three only increases their value at auction or at neighborhood hobby shops. Most baseball players realize that fans expect them to be generous with their time and scribble their names on cardboard collectibles. It’s giving back to the game, or so they say. But where they are asked to sign sometimes baffles them.
Steve Blass, 1971 World Series pitching hero for the Pittsburgh Pirates, recently revealed what he considers the most bizarre autograph request.
“Cards are what most people ask for me to sign. I still receive several items in the mail at my home weekly. Actually, it’s very flattering to be asked for my signature. When I was a kid, I had a card collection,” says the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Famer. “I’ve never not followed through with a request. The strangest thing that has been asked of me came from the nephew of a former player. He wanted my fingerprints. The letter I received with the card where my fingerprints went said that this person collected fingerprints of pitchers who have played in Game 7 of a World Series.”
The ever-accommodating winner of Games 3 and 7 of the Pirates-Baltimore Orioles Fall Classic, Blass signed the card, and delivered on his fingerprints.
Autograph requests usually come with directions to use a specific color Sharpie marker or ballpoint pen (black and blue are the favorite colors), and where on the item the signature should go. Collectors are very specific in how and where autographs are to go.
Some players, at shows, conventions, or through the mail, require payment. Some will still fulfill a request for free. When it comes to locating current and retired players, coaches, managers, and umpires, Jack Smalling’s The Baseball Address List Book (now in its 21st volume) is a go-to reference.
Colorado Rockies’ hitting coach Clint Hurdle is one of the most approachable subjects sought out by collectors at ballparks. During the recent spring training season in Florida, when asked whether he’s been requested to sign any unusual collectibles over his career, Hurdle offered up a few that are in the same category as Blass and his fingerprint order.
“Well, let’s see. I signed a baby’s baptismal outfit. That was different. I was given a wedding announcement to sign. Everyone that received an announcement read my name on it. Someone even asked me to sign their wedding picture.”
You have to wonder, how does one have these odd items appraised? Most of these are one of a kind. It’s doubtful that even a hobby publication such as Sports Collectors Digest could follow through with an accurate dollar amount. You could learn if the signature is authentic, how the item is graded toward overall value, but how does even the most seasoned authenticator put a number to a signed baptismal outfit?
Along with cards, player equipment or game-used jerseys, Beckett Baseball should easily be able to come through with numbers other collectors could accept.
National Baseball Hall of Famer Jim Leyland (Class of 2024) tells of a regular item that has found its way into his hands over the years for his signature.
“When I was a kid, I attended one or two major league ballgames in person, so I never really was hooked on pursuing autographs. To be honest, I don’t understand the whole craze of wanting signatures. For me, probably the strangest things fans want me to sign are packs of cigarettes. I can’t believe it, but they know I smoke.”
Authenticating signatures, particularly for those who hope to cash in on their investments in years to come, is paramount. But proof comes at a price. The two most used authenticating and grading companies are PSA (Professional Sports Authenticator) and SGC (Sportscard Guaranty Corporation). Both companies have been in business for decades but just may have found their match in an item former MLB pitcher Bob Walk put his John Hancock on.
Forget that Walk has a World Series ring from his 1980 season with the Philadelphia Phillies. Excuse the parents who asked Walk, a winner of 105 MLB games, to sign their baby’s arm. It’s what a car owner had Walk put his name to that is perplexing to the longtime pirates’ broadcaster—even today, years after following through on the request.
“I signed an oil pan from a Ford Shelby Mustang,” Walk said. “At first, I was embarrassed to do it. The pan was freshly painted. The owner liked cars. He took the oil pan and mounted it on a wall. At least, this is what he told me.”
