Antiques Roadshow

APPRAISER

How old are you guys?

GUEST 1

I'm 18.

GUEST 2

I'm 21.

APPRAISER

Okay, so what are you doing then... I could see if you had a Barry Bonds ball, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter. What are you doing with a Ty Cobb ball?

GUEST 1

We don't know. We got it from our great aunt from Royston, Georgia.

GUEST 2

And Ty Cobb lived in Royston, Georgia, so she asked him to get a ball signed for my dad, and so he signed it and gave it to her and it's been passed down by generations to us, finally.

APPRAISER

What did your dad do with it when he got it?

GUEST 2

He put it in a safety deposit box. He knew it was probably pretty valuable.

APPRAISER

Now, how much do you know about Ty Cobb?

GUEST 2

I know he was a really good baseball player and he had a high batting average and stuff.

GUEST 1

He was pretty mean, too.

APPRAISER

"He was pretty mean"-- everyone seems to know that.

GUEST 2

Yeah, that seems to be his outstanding trait, I think.

APPRAISER

All right, let me fill in a few blanks for you guys, just so you know. Ty Cobb, yes, he actually broke into the big leagues in 1905. He was only 18-years-old. And everyone talks about him having "a 400 season." The last guy to do it was Ted Williams in 1941. Ty Cobb, during the "Dead Ball Era," did it three times. Three times-- so he was pretty impressive. Also he held the stolen base record for years until Lou Brock broke it, and then afterwards, Ricky Henderson. So he was fast, he got a lot of his hits on bunts that he used to drag. He played for the Detroit Tigers for almost every year of his career until 1928. He retired with the Philadelphia Athletics. So he had a phenomenal career, he was in three World Series. But what a lot of people... And he had, oh, huge batting average, as you said. Okay?.366-- what do you think that would get him in the big leagues nowadays, you know? He'd be making Alex Rodriguez kind of money. When he started out, he was a shrewd businessman. Lots of people don't know this, because ball players were not known for their business-making abilities. This guy, in 1908, at 19-years-old, held out with the owner, because he was making 2,400 bucks and he wanted to make $5,000. Frank Navin, the owner of the Detroit Tigers, gave in-- and it paid off, because two years later, Cobb hit 400 for the first time. But in the '20s, he went back to Detroit. He bought General Motors stock, and in Atlanta-- because he was Georgia boy, and lived there all his life-- he bought Coca Cola stock and ended up being worth $11 million by the time he died in 1961. But just to show you how frugal he was in his beginning years, he was known for taking all the soap chips out of the locker room showers and reusing them for himself.

GUEST 2

Wow.

APPRAISER

Single-signed baseballs for dead Hall-of-Famers-- Hall-of-Famers that died before the era of signing shows that they have nowadays, are worth the most money. Most of the time, when you're looking at single-signed baseballs, they tend to be worth more if they're signed during a player's career. But what's so great about this and what makes it valuable in and of itself is simply the absolute spectacular quality of the signature. Now also, most of the time, you look for baseballs that are official American League or National League. This one's a Special League, again, signed well after the fact. It doesn't matter. The signature in this case supersedes all of those other factors. What do you guys think this is worth?

GUEST 1

We don't even know.

GUEST 2

I have no clue.

APPRAISER

Alright, alright. Well, just last fall, I sold one in one of my auctions for $15,000.

GUEST 2

Are you serious?

APPRAISER

And if I was going to put this one in another auction, I'd put it in at least $10,000 to $15,000. And if I was going to insure it, I'd insure it for probably $20,000.

GUESTS

Wow.