I have been collecting Mark McGwire cards, autographs and game used equipment for nearly ten years now and I am sick about what is going on in the autograph hobby today. In his early days Mark would do private signings and cards shows. this ended fairly abruptly in 1989. After that time he did very few bulk signings. The Sports Illustrated prints in '92 come to mind and the last two Cardinals Winter Warm ups, but not much else. To be honest about 95% of all current Mac signatures (St Louis era) are forgeries. And what's worse, some unscrupulous dealers have taken to forging his earlier signature because they know people are catching on. I hope with this primer to give you an idea of what his autograph looks like through the last 15 years or so. The Early Days (1984-1986) I have a few examples of Macs early playing signature in my personal collection. His very early signature tends to be more clear and show the most letters in his name than any other variation. the earliest signature I own is on a ball signed by the 1984 Olympic Team. Now there are a lot of '84 Olympic Team balls out there that are signed, but MOST of these came from the 5th year reunion show in 1989, thus they have an '89 variation signature and not the very early one shown here.
The next example I have is from 1986 in his minor league playing days. He signed quite a few of these Huntsville Stars cards for a card store in Huntsville. Notice the full name. You can read "Mark" very clearly and the M C G and W in McGwire. this is probably the clearest he ever signed his name. During Marks career the "G" in McGwire is the tell tale sign of the age of the autograph.
The Rookie Year (1987) During Marks rookie year his signature underwent a few changes and variations during that year. Early in the year Mark tended to have a long flattened "G". You could still read all of "Mark" but pretty much all you see of "McGwire" is the "McG" He signed a lot of 8x10s for Scoreboard with this type signature.
Later in the season his "g" loop got longer and wider. Also the loop for the "K" in Mark began to increase in size. The "R" in Mark started to disappear. He was starting to approach the rookie HR record so he was signing more and more.
Sophomore Year (1988) In this year Mark did a lot of signing because of his record setting rookie year. The "G" began to take on an oval appearance and the "R" was all but gone now.
World series Time! (1989) In '89 Mark still did a lot of signing. What comes to mind most is the '84 Olympic Team reunion shows (I believe there were two) Nearly all of the Olympic Team bats and balls you see were signed in '89. The "g" now started to evolve more. the down stroke became straight while the upleg was still curved making the loop look like a half moon. Late in '89 Mark stated publicly that he would not be doing any more shows.
Early 90's During the early '90s Macs signature started to take a more subtle change. Again it was the "g" that was changing. The loop was going from a half moon in '89 to a more triangular shape in the early '90s.
The Mid '90's During the mid '90s a couple things started happening with Marks autograph. First he started to sign a shorter "ballpark" signature at the games. This was to accommodate the large number of autograph seekers at the games. He would shorten his signature considerably to save time signing. This practice continues to today. This type of signature can be easily forged and is hard to authenticate 100% even by knowledgeable collectors.
Also during this time Mark started to add a larger loop to the last leg of the "M" in Mark. The "G" continued to get more triangular in shape.
1996 & 1997 During this time period Marks signature took on its present day characteristics. Two large loops in "Mark" and the triangular shaped "G" in McGwire. the signature tended to be smaller than his current more flamboyant signature, but much the same.
The Record Year! (1998) When Mark got traded to St Louis he started adding the notation "STL25" to a lot of his autographs. he did this from late '97 to roughly the All star game in '98.
