16 February 2010

1998 Japan Ball Photos

All right, guys! I promised photos, and I've got photos of that 1998 Japan All-Star Series Team Signed baseball I picked up from a garage sale last weekend! Here's what I'm arbitrarily calling side 1, with an unknown sig above the logo and Sammy Sosa, unknown #2, Carlos Delgado (it looks like "Kirby"), and Rick Helling:
Side #2, with Trevor Hoffman above the "Rawlings," unknown #3, Greg Vaughn, Dan Plesac, Javy Lopez, and Tom Gordon:
Side #3 with Kevin Millwood, BJ Surhoff, Billy Wagner, Jason Kendall, Garret Anderson, Nomar Garciaparra (#5), and unknown #4:
And finally, side 4, with Jason Giambi at the very top, Devon White (the former Diamondback), Curt Schilling, Brett Tomko, Damion Easley, Al Leiter, Jamie Moyer, and Andruw Jones at the very bottom (it looks like "S - S -"):
The "sweet spot" of the ball, with Mike Hargrove's autograph:
And the side opposite the sweet spot, with the "Official Ball / Japan All-Star Tour" logo:
A couple of my readers also asked me to put up close-up pics of the four signatures I could not figure out (YET...!) myself, so here they are in no particular order. This first one appears above Sammy Sosa's autograph on "side 1" of the ball:
Unknown #2, between Sammy Sosa and Carlos Delgado. This one looks like "Lee Myjer" to me, but I don't think that's a real name. Problem is, it's squeezed in so tight right there, that it's hard to identify correctly:
Unknown #3, which is between the Rawlings logo and Greg Vaughn's autograph. I thought at first it might be Manny Ramirez (from his Indians days), but the auto doesn't seem to match up to 1998 stock photos of his autographs on various items:
And finally, unknown #4, which appears below Nomar Garciaparra's signature. "Rellaus"?
Any help anyone can give me on these four signatures would be much appreciated! Either way, it's a really nice piece of American baseball memorabilia!

3 comments:

  1. "Lee Myjer" is Leo Mazzone. He was the pitching coach.

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  2. Cookie Rojas (coach) above Sammy Sosa. Rich Dauer (coach) is unknown #4. Don't know about the other one. Did you ever find out?

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  3. The last one may very well be Chan Ho Park or Manny Ramirez. My guess is Park.

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