BEFORE “FF”
Freddie Freeman’s high school-age signatures were clean
BY MIKE P AYNE
Don’t recognize the early Freddie Freeman autographs?
Well, as a 16-year-old in the summer of 2006 (he turned 17 that September), the kid from El Modena High in Orange, Calif., wanted his signature to look sharp.
And it did, with a flowing signature in which the full name is there.
Those signatures can be seen on his 2006 USA Baseball Junior National Team autograph cards as well as Topps 2006 AFLAC All-American cards that were released two years later in 2008 Bowman Draft.
This is impressive considering Freeman and his USA Baseball teammates signed just over 1,500 labels each in 2006, accounting for several ink color tiers of both regular AU cards and AU/JSY cards.
The Topps AFLAC cards were signed oncard, with a Topps sticker on the back identifying it as one of the cards signed at the event rather than one signed by the player later on away from the park (each was to receive 100 of his own cards). The print run for autographs is believed to be between 230-250 sets.
As the game was played August 12, and the players signed the cards on-site, the AFLAC cards were likely signed first. But
Topps couldn’t release any of the amateur players’ autographs until they had been drafted and signed with a major league club.
Thus, the USA Baseball signatures were the first out of the gate, appearing in the organization’s 2006 USA Baseball National Teams box sets, with seven autographs per box. The Junior National Team has since changed its name to the USA Baseball 18U Team.
While the images on the cards, including Freeman, were taken at a training event in Joplin, Mo., the signatures themselves were secured later
(shortly after the AFLAC game was played) while the team was prepping for an 18U world championship tournament in Cuba. Team USA won the silver medal in that 18U AAAA Junior World Championships. Freeman’s signature began to change around 2011 when he began signing more of an “FF” than anything else. It’s certainly not uncommon for a player’s signature to change over time – Bryce Harper’s, for instance – but the early signatures, the ones signed when they were still kids, capture a time when the demands were manageable, and the players signed their autographs similar to the way they signed their history homework.
Freddie Freeman’s early signatures reflect that.