General Forum

Wow! What a beautiful autograph.  What a joke.

Real cool cards, but I agree these guys should learn how to write their name!

I read an article, written by Mike Schmidt, a few years ago.  He went to the Phillies Spring Training clubhouse to get autographed baseballs for a charity event.  He left a box of baseballs out for the players to sign and returned a couple of days later.  He was lamenting, in the article, how the clubhouse attendent had to help him identify who had signed which baseball.  Most were merely scribbles and there was next to nothing which allowed for a signature to be identified.  He wondered when and why players have stopped "writing" their name.  Can't say that I disagree.

I think part of the problem has been that the companies do not push/suggest that the players sign a better signature. I can understand the players thought process, they have hundreds of not thousands of stickers to sign so they don't care. As long as they put some effort they get paid.

I get it, I really do.  My signature gets a lot shorter after signing a few (I used to sign payroll checks and the first 5 were pretty good quality and by the end it was the first few letters and then a bunch of loops).  I just wish they'd at least give a little effort - even if you can't read it.  Just a 2 (or a cursive J) and an apostrophe is kinda weak.  I'd imagine that everybody just calls him "J" so he thinks that's acceptable (and I guess it is) but I'd like to think that they'd think about the end user and not want them to think they were too stupid to write more than 1 letter.  Maybe some of the athletes think the card companies just want them to sign their first name (or initials) so that's what they do.  I'd imagine that the card company reps are somewhat to blame.  I'm sure they prefer the guys that crank them out fast even if they look bad.

I think this is the most unintentionally hilarious autograph in my collection. Seriously, the front of the card says "Yours Truly, <large whitespace>" and he couldn't figure out where he was supposed to sign?

This is the closest I've seen Matteo get to the autograph area in this set, normally just the lowest loop hits it: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MATTEO-MANASSERO-2011-Leaf-Metal-Golf-SILVER-Prismatic-Refractor-AUTO-BA-MM1-MT/113188822441

At least he signed them all on the front though   I don't think anything can beat that Getzlaf.

That Getzlaf gets a laugh from me. (I can't believe I really just typed that)

Seriously though, I read a news article about this epidemic once, and a popular athlete (possibly Auston Matthews) claimed that they don't teach cursive in schools anymore, so these young people (athlete or otherwise) literally don't know how to sign their name.  I'm no teacher, and I have no children, so I can't verify if there is any truth to it, but I guess it's a possibility to consider???

It's completely true that schools don't teach cursive writing anymore. My nephew is 11 and still can't read cursive when any adults write in a birthday card or something. He's getting better at recognizing the letters, but he certainly can't write in cursive at all. I think I learned cursive in 3rd or 4th grade.