Thursday, March 15, 2012

Which Tom Fisher is the Orioles Tom Fisher?

I'm taking a quick break from my Orioles Spring Training autographs today because I need some help. 

I have a bit of an autograph conundrum regarding the Tom Fisher that pitched in two games for the 1967 Orioles. I have two signatures of a Tom Fisher, but I'm not really sure which one is the Tom Fisher whose signature I want. 

Can any of you fellow Orioles autograph collectors out there help me out? Which one of these is the one I want?




The signed index card has been in my collection for quite some time but I recently upgraded to the signed Crown card and immediately noticed that the signatures don't mach up very well at all. I can see some similarities in the F but that's about it. While I suppose, there is some chance they are both different versions of the same Tom's signature (one the full name signature and the other a semi-printed Tom version) they don't appear to be very similar to me.

In my mind, it seems more likely that the signature on the Crown card is the correct autograph, since it seems unlikely that someone else would sign a card with a picture on it. (I know there are shady dealers/collectors out there, but I got this from a reliable source, albeit one that might not have known what a real/fake autograph of Tom's looked like, as I don't either.)

I suppose that anyone can sign an index card, so it's possible that it was signed by another person with the same name, but a quick online search didn't produce any other semi-famous people by the name of Thomas G Fisher. And while there was another baseball player named Tom Fisher who played for the 1904 Boston Beaneaters, his middle name began with a C, so I doubt that this is his autograph.

While I'm sure that whoever sold me both of these autographs had good intentions, they certainly appear to be from two different Tom Fisher's. Since Tom's autograph is rare and I wasn't able to find any other examples online, I'm hoping that one of you might be able to swoop in for the assist. Help a brotha out!

4 comments:

Ryan H said...

This is a tough one. I would think that both are real and from the same Tom. I think the only way to know for sure it to see if the Orioles Front Office has some examples of his signature to compare it to.

Kirk Jacobson said...

I see a lot of similarities in the Fisher of both signatures. I think the index card, if it is aged at all, looks like from a younger hand. The "Tom" printed on the Crown Card seems to have flowed from a shakier hand. Just my opinion. That being said, I am interested in the Fisher you dont keep.

Aaron said...

Here is what my Fisher auto looks like:

http://i170.photobucket.com/albums/u242/bigslimdog/All%20Time%20Orioles%20Autos/bf54ad95.jpg

It looks different from both of yours.

Orioles Magic said...

Thanks for the input guys.