U.S. baseball steps up security to fight fraud

By Ben Klayman

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tom Cunningham stands in the camera well near first base at U.S. Cellular Field, home of the Chicago White Sox, intently watching the action and making sure he views every batted ball and close play.

The 49-year-old Chicago police officer is not there as a fan -- although he does love baseball -- but as part of Major League Baseball's program to guarantee the authenticity of game-used jerseys, balls, bats and other memorabilia it sells to fans.

At the end of the White Sox game, Cunningham will assign each item an identification number, attach a tamper-proof hologram and record its details.

Fans who pay hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars to buy these items -- usually via the Major League Baseball website -- can be sure that they are getting what they pay for.

"It's put integrity back in collectibles," said Cunningham, one of baseball's 130 authenticators, who also witness and authenticate the signatures of players who sign items for sale.

The program was set up after a Federal Bureau of Investigation probe into sports memorabilia in 2000 that concluded that as much as 75 percent of sports and entertainment memorabilia was fake.

The probe, known as "Operation Bullpen" after the area where baseball pitchers warm up, resulted in the seizure, in one case, of some 10,000 baseballs with counterfeit signatures, including one purporting to be by Mother Teresa.

At the time, players such as outfielder Tony Gwynn and pitcher Randy Johnson were identifying forgeries of their own signatures on baseballs that were for sale in their home parks.

"It was really an eye opener for us," said Howard Smith, baseball's senior vice president of licensing. "If you can't buy something at the stadium with confidence, you really have a problem."

Pete Siegel, of New York City-based Gotta Have It! Collectible Inc, which sells high-end sports collectibles, said the move was long overdue in a market he estimates at $2 billion and growing.

"If it was done years earlier, items would be worth a lot more money than they are now," he said.

Baseballs that retired New York Yankees all-star Mickey Mantle signed in the 1980s for sports trading card publisher Upper Deck carry a 50 percent premium to other balls because Upper Deck affixed a hologram to every ball, lending it more credibility, Siegel said.

Other North American sports leagues authenticate their items as well, but not on the same level as baseball, whose holograms are made by Britain's OpSec Security Group Plc.

The National Basketball Association and National Hockey league both use MeiGray Group to authenticate items and the National Football League uses PSA/DNA, a division of Collectors Universe, while Major League Soccer has tested radio frequency ID chips by Prova Group Inc.

"We don't want to get mixed in with the $50 Brett Favre-signed footballs that apparently are not real because Brett didn't sign for anything less than $100, $150," said Pete Quaglierini, manager of NFL Auctions, referring to the Green Bay Packers quarterback.