Autographed Baseball

[mojjax]

I got this for 50 cents at a rummage sale . I can't make out the signature .
I can see the word Pirates .

 

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[Bigcypresshunter]

Its original, Im almost certain. Thanks. Pirates won the World Series in 72 I think. I dont know much about it, my Dads friend from Pittsburgh gave it to me over 20 years ago because he knows I collect stuff. Ill save the pic you posted for my eBay listing. It may be over 20 years He may have given it to us when we visited in the 80's. I have bad memory but I collect stuff all my life like a packrat. Now is time to sell lol.

 

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[Bigcypresshunter]

I have seen that Pirates face on a ball before. I think my Dad had one.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I dont know whos signature this is but the older official everyday use baseballs looked something like this.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Here is the official ball I was looking for (signed by commissioner) and a story to go with it.

http://cookandsonbats.mlblogs.com/2011/04/03/spring-training-vii-mariners-intrasquad-fanfest/

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Based on the research I've done, I believe it is safe to say that "Wilson" was never an official supplier of Major League baseballs. As far as I can determine, those contracts were with "Spalding" first and "Rawlings" second.

Regarding mojjax's ball, I'm convinced it is a souvenir/sports shop ball. But still trying to date and more fully identify it.

SBB

However, Wilson did make a lot of other "official" sports related stuff, including gloves, uniforms, etc. Read all about Wilson here ...

Wilson History:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson_Sporting_Goods

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

Here's one with a pirate image on it made by some company named "Dudley" and is described as a "souvenir" ball (with autographs already on it) that was purchased at the Pirates ballpark gift shop during the 1979 World Series.

I think this is pretty strong evidence in support of mojjax's ball being a ballpark souvenir. But it still doesn't answer the question as to why Ron Cey would be signing a Pirates ball? I think the most likely answer, as previously stated, is that some fan had a Pirates ball and that he just got Cey to sign it because it was the only ball the fan had with him at the time. It was possibly even purchased that same day in the gift shop. But we may never know for sure what year it was signed, or whether it was signed when Ron Cey played for the L.A. Dodgers - Chicago Cubs - or the Oakland Athletics (where he finished his career in the late 1980s).

SBB

 

[halfdime]

Unfortunately, the Pirates did not win the World Series in 1972; they were three outs away from winning the NLCS when Dave Giusti first allowed Johnny Bench to tie with a homer and Bob Moose uncorked the wild pitch that sent the Reds to the Series instead. The Bucs won in 1971, and had an even better team in 1972. The game I just mentioned was Clemente's last. Most of what has been mentioned is true: Wilson has never been a Major League ball. The Pirate icon shown was used in the '70's and early '80's; it used to appear on the big scoreboard at 3 Rivers and also on ticket stubs. The hat went with the double knit uniforms that caused such a scandal when they debuted when 3 Rivers opened. I doubt that a Cey autograph has much value.

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

The Pirate icon shown was used in the '70's and early '80's; it used to appear on the big scoreboard at 3 Rivers and also on ticket stubs.

halfdime ~

Thanks for the info. It fully supports the 1977 ball pictured below.

SBB

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Unfortunately, the Pirates did not win the World Series in 1972;

Thanks for the reminder. I was just reminiscing off the top of my head. I can probably name every player on every Pirate team. You are correct, the Pirates won in 71. I remember when Maz hit the homer in 60 listening on my transistor radio. They also won in 79. Correct me if Im wrong.

I remember Clemente. We always sat in short RF when my Dad took me as a kid to Forbes Field. For some reason we always yelled out "Arriba, Arriba" or something like that. Clementes throws from RF were incredibly accurate but they bounced several times for the cut-off man..I didnt understand that as a kid. I dont remember having baseball on TV.

Clemente did some amazing things including throwing out runners at first base. I loved the times he reached out and hit the ball when a pitcher tried to intentionally walk him.

Are you also from Pittsburgh halfdime?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

The hat went with the double knit uniforms that caused such a scandal when they debuted when 3 Rivers opened.

Thanks. 1970- 75?

 

[halfdime]

Pittsburgh area. "Arriba arriba" was something Bob Prince contrived whenever Clemente was up in a key spot, or did something spectacular. Never made it to Forbes, except for what's left of the outfield wall. My dad took me to my first game on Clemente Night a week after Three Rivers opened in 1970. I always wish he would have taken me to Forbes just three weeks earlier. Bucs beat the Astros 11-0. We sat in the upper deck in right field and I couldn't believe how awesome it was. I think Stargell may have homered that night. No matter how awful the Pirates have been the last 19 years, they can't take away the memory of those great years.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Pittsburgh area. "Arriba arriba" was something Bob Prince contrived whenever Clemente was up in a key spot, or did something spectacular. Never made it to Forbes, except for what's left of the outfield wall. My dad took me to my first game on Clemente Night a week after Three Rivers opened in 1970. I always wish he would have taken me to Forbes just three weeks earlier. Bucs beat the Astros 11-0. We sat in the upper deck in right field and I couldn't believe how awesome it was. I think Stargell may have homered that night. No matter how awful the Pirates have been the last 19 years, they can't take away the memory of those great years.

I remember Stargell when he played in the Minor Leagues. I think he played for Colombus. I used to listen to his Minor League games on the radio waiting for him to move up to the Pirates.. He could hit the ball a ton. I can still envision him winding up that bat before each pitch.. Bob Prince. Is he the announcer that always said "we need a bloop and a blast" when we were 2 runs behind? "Going going ...gone... kiss it goodbye."

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

The following is according to a Spanish to English translation dictionary ...

Arriba ...

Adverb:

1. Above (posición) (en general) ; Upstairs (en edificio)
2. Slang: "Batter Up"

SBB

 

[Dano Sverige]

It's also what Speedy Gonzalez shouted...."Arriba Arriba, Andale...yeeeehawwww" etc lol.

 

[halfdime]

Pittsburgh area. "Arriba arriba" was something Bob Prince contrived whenever Clemente was up in a key spot, or did something spectacular. Never made it to Forbes, except for what's left of the outfield wall. My dad took me to my first game on Clemente Night a week after Three Rivers opened in 1970. I always wish he would have taken me to Forbes just three weeks earlier. Bucs beat the Astros 11-0. We sat in the upper deck in right field and I couldn't believe how awesome it was. I think Stargell may have homered that night. No matter how awful the Pirates have been the last 19 years, they can't take away the memory of those great years.

I remember Stargell when he played in the Minor Leagues. I think he played for Colombus. I used to listen to his Minor League games on the radio waiting for him to move up to the Pirates.. He could hit the ball a ton. I can still envision him winding up that bat before each pitch.. Bob Prince. Is he the announcer that always said "we need a bloop and a blast" when we were 2 runs behind? "Going going ...gone... kiss it goodbye."

"Spread some chicken on the Hill with Will!" Stargell owned a chicken outlet in the Hill District, and anyone in the store when he homered got free chicken. So, when Willie the Starge homered, Prince would crow and anyone in Willie's store went home happy. Stargell still has the records for longest homeruns in some of the older parks. Dodger Stadium and Wrigley Field are about the only two left! For a while, there was a ten minute recording on YouTube of Clemente's 3000th hit, recorded off KDKA, with Prince at the microphone. It was awesome, but I can't find it anymore.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I loved growing up in Pittsburgh. Kennywood Park. "He beat him like a rented mule" one of my favorites from a latter Penguins announcer.

Check out a list of Bob Princes "Gunnerisms" I found online. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Prince

I like the "can o corn" and my Grandma always wore her "Babushka" when she went to the store for chipped ham. I loved her fried cabbage and noodles. Yummy

Gunnerisms
Prince used dozens of pet words and phrases that were often imitated but never duplicated in his profession. Here are some:

"A bloop and a blast": A base hit and a home run, usually late in the game when the Bucs were down by two runs.
"There's a bug loose on the rug" or just "A bug on a rug": A ground ball that scooted between all the fielders on the defensive team, often skipping/rolling all the way to the outfield wall. Also possibly refers to the artificial turf as a "rug".
"A dying quail": A bloop base hit, more commonly known as a "Texas Leaguer."
"Can o' corn" or "A No. 8 can of Golden Bantam": A routine fly ball or popup which came straight down, from old-time grocery stores in which canned goods (including corn) were on a very high shelf and a stick was used to pull them off the shelf ... and be neatly caught by the clerk. Golden Bantam was a popular brand of corn.
"Foul by a gnat's eyelash" and "Close as fuzz on a tick's ear": The difference between a ball being fair or foul or a player being safe or out.
"Frozen rope": A hard line drive, often hit by Roberto Clemente.
"Hidden vigorish": A call for help for the Pirates or for an individual player, as in, "He just needs a little hidden vigorish." (Vigorish, from a Yiddish slang term, is the somewhat hidden profit that bookmakers get for a bet, regardless of who wins or loses.)
"Low hummin' riser": A fastball.
"Rug-cuttin' time" and "For all the money, marbles, and chalk": The deciding moment; crunch time.
"Runnin' through the raindrops": Escaping without serious damage, as when a Pirate pitcher gives up several hits and/or walks in an inning but the other team did not score.
"He couldn't hit that with a bed slat": After a batter chased a pitch way outside.
"A little bingle": A little hit (single); a way to get on base and start a rally.
"Aspirin tablets": Fastballs so quick they seem that small.
"Atem balls": A pun describing hard batted balls that went right to a fielder—right "at 'em." When this happened a few times in a game, Prince would say that a Pirate pitcher "has his atem ball workin' tonight."
"Babushka power": Prince would call on the power of the headscarves that women fans wore. At Prince's urging, the women sometimes would take off their scarves and wave them; Steelers announcer Myron Cope later adapted the idea into the "Terrible Towel." that Steeler fans still wave.
"Arriba!": Spanish for above or aloft, used by Prince in reverential reference to Clemente and his astonishing skills. Fans adopted the word as Clemente's nickname. Prince was fluent in Spanish and helped mentor and translate for Hispanic players, including Clemente, a Puerto Rican who spoke English with a heavy accent.
"How sweet it is!": Exclaimed whenever the result was sweet for the Pirates. The phrase apparently was also used by Rosey Rosewell, longtime Pirate announcer who Prince joined at the beginning of his career. It is originally attributed to entertainer Jackie Gleason.
"Good night, Mary Edgerly, wherever you are": His trademark farewell, although he never explained on-air who she was. Prince admitted the phrase was a variation of comedian Jimmy Durante's nightly good-bye to an unseen Mrs. Calabash on his television show. Mary Frances Smith Edgerly was, indeed, a real person, a dear friend of Bob and Betty Prince who resided at the Blue Waters Beach Club in St. Petersburg, Florida. "Mayme" was a lifelong baseball fan and used to spend hours in the stands during spring training watching her beloved Pirates. She was a lively and interesting lady who died at the age of 105, two weeks after attending an Old-Timers' game in Buffalo, New York. Clemente also loved Mary and gave her one of his record-setting bats.
"Hoover": A double play in which the Pirates would "vacuum" runners from the bases, which happened often, as second baseman Bill Mazeroski holds the all-time record for double plays. Once criticized for "promoting" a vacuum cleaner company that was not a sponsor, Prince—who did not like anyone challenging his sayings—invented the explanation that he was referring to the tax relief policies of former President Herbert Hoover.
"Pull out the plug, mother!": When the other team's rally went down the drain, often due to an inning-ending double play.
"Kiss it good-bye!" or "You can kiss it good-bye!" or "You can kiss this baby good-bye!": legendary home run call and current broadcast standard.
"Radio ball": A fastball thrown so hard it “could be heard but not seen.”
"Soup cooler": A pitch delivered high and inside, so termed because it was up around the lips (which blow on soup to cool it).
"Spread some chicken on the Hill with Will" or just "Chicken on the Hill": After a home run hit by Pirates slugger Willie Stargell who owned a fried chicken establishment in the Hill District of Pittsburgh and offered free chicken to any customer who was in line when Stargell homered.
"Sufferin' catfish": Words of frustration after the baseball gods conspired against his team. A fairly common southern term.
"The alabaster plaster": The rock-hard infield surface at Pittsburgh's Forbes Field. An "alabaster blast" was the basehit that came off the hard infield, more commonly known as a "Baltimore chop".
"The House of Thrills": Forbes Field itself.
"The bases are F.O.B.": The bases are loaded (“Full of Bucs,” probably borrowed from Red Barber's "Full of Brooklyns").
"'Tweener": a hit to the left or right field gap and thus between the fielders.
"We had 'em alllll the way" or "The Buccos had 'em alllll the way": A way to say that the Pirates never trailed in a game. Also used humorously and ironically after the Pirates scored an improbable, come-from-behind victory.
"Call a doctor, it's outta here": when an opposing player hit a home run off a Pirate pitcher

 

[halfdime]

"The bases are F.O.B.": The bases are loaded (“Full of Bucs,” probably borrowed from Red Barber's "Full of Brooklyns").
Borrowed from Rosey Rosewell, actually, Prince's predecessor. Not sure I spelled predecessor right.

 

[halfdime]

I read Jim O'Brien's book about Prince, which was a bit tame. John Steigerwald has written a couple in the last few years and tells a couple Prince stories. The Gunner had a habit of "pi$$ing in sinks." He also gave Dave Parker his nickname after seeing him exit the shower.

 

[SODABOTTLEBOB]

"For a while, there was a ten minute recording on YouTube of Clemente's 3000th hit, recorded off KDKA, with Prince at the microphone. It was awesome, but I can't find it anymore."


Did someone say "KDKA" Radio Station?

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Thats it KDKA carried the Buccos games.