Diamonds that are dirt cheap still dazzle, right?
Circa 2014
I was fortunate to be hired as a ball boy by the Brooklyn Dodgers for their annual exhibition game in Miami, which takes place late March. I have fond memories of the experience — Roy Campanella smoking his cigar while he stroked the line drives in batting practice, Sandy Koufax throwing as hard as humanly possible at a young age and an aging Jackie Robinson trying to stay in the lineup.
My most vivid memory, however, is the Dodgers longtime batboy, who sat at the locker room and produced autographed balls. He would twist his hands at odd angles while he scrawled copies of Duke Snider’s, PeeWee Reese’s and other Dodger icons. The balls he signed were virtually identical to those of the players.
Experts in handwriting could probably have detected his forgeries with ease, but technology is much more advanced today. It’s possible to create essentially exact replicas in many fields, including autographed baseballs.
Source:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/20/business/when-diamonds-are-dirt-cheap-will-they-still-dazzle.html