NEW YORK — Nestled beside each dugout at Citi Field is a chained-off area, no larger than a Manhattan apartment bedroom.
Two inconspicuous individuals, both in black Nike polo shirts, sat there mostly out of sight — until a bat boy tossed a ball from the field into the box.
The men were out of view of the TV broadcast, not purposefully, but hidden nonetheless. Fans seated behind them were mostly focused on the game itself, food and drink vendors, or the scoreboard in center field showing other results from around the NL, as the Mets were fighting for a playoff spot
Only a few children detected their presence, mostly out of curiosity as to why the bat boys were soft-tossing foul balls to these grown men, rather than into the stands like the ball boys along the first- and third-base lines.
In the eighth inning of a Tuesday night game between the Mets and Nationals, New York outfielder Harrison Bader fouled off a ball on a 2-2 count, which wound up along the third-base line.
The Nationals bat boy jogged over during a break between pitches, retrieved the ball, and tossed it to one of the men, despite the clamoring of children in the first row, asking for the ball.
“Why won’t he toss us the ball?” one boy asked.
“He’s putting a sticker on it, so you know it was used in the game,” answered another.
The young boy was correct.
The black Nike shirts labeled “Authenticators Inc.” are worn by Major League Baseball authenticators who attend every game. Every authenticator is an independently contracted off-duty or former law enforcement official with a minimum of 15 to 20 years experience in leadership positions.
For the Mets, "T" is a former 25-year NYPD lieutenant with a specialization in narcotics, and "Dan" is a former NYPD emergency service unit captain with 28 years on the force. (MLB asked that cllct not reveal their last names.)
“We want to have people who understand the idea of collecting evidence,” said Michael Posner, MLB vice president of authentication, “because you get that one shot to record history.”
The Major League Baseball Authentication Program, which has existed since 2001, serves to safeguard the sport and to preserve its extensive and painstakingly accurate history.
MLB originally employed Deloitte & Touche, but in 2006 created a wholly owned subsidiary called Authenticators Inc., which employs about 240 active and former law enforcement officials. There are even authenticators in London for the handful of games the league plays there each year.
These authenticators cover every single major-league and minor-league game, from spring training through the World Series.
Why does the league employ such a robust system?
Because baseball fell victim to the biggest forgery scam in American history.
Operation Bullpen
When Tony Gwynn walked into the Padres’ team store, he immediately knew something was wrong.
Gwynn, who took great pride in signing autographs for fans, looked up and down at the signed baseballs and photographs in the gift shop at Qualcomm Stadium, his eyes scanning the intricacies of each signature.
The San Diego star asked the employees in the shop what the items were, Posner said, and the employees sheepishly informed Gwynn they were his signatures.
They weren’t.
Not one of the autographed pieces of memorabilia actually featured a Gwynn signature on that day in 1997.
“That really fried me,” Gwynn, who died in 2014, told the Los Angeles Times in 2000. “I take some pride in making my signature legible.”
Forged sports memorabilia began to garner increased attention in the mid-1990s, when the Chicago Division of the FBI infiltrated a ring of individuals who forged, fraudulently authenticated, and distributed Chicago athletes’ autographed memorabilia, especially Michael Jordan’s, whose signature still remains the most forged in the world according to James Spence Authentication.
“Operation Foul Ball," as it was called, suggested the scale of the problem was much greater than that of just Chicago.
After Gwynn’s discovery, MLB notified the FBI, which launched a much larger covert sequel to “Operation Foul Ball," called “Operation Bullpen," a joint investigation with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the IRS.
Running across three phases, from 1997-2006, “Operation Bullpen” resulted in 63 charges and convictions and 18 dismantled forgery rings.
Before “Operation Bullpen”, the only fact-checking collectors had were certificates of authenticity, Posner said, which didn’t offer much actual proof.
“If I'm gonna go and fake Tony Gwynn's signature,” Posner said, “I'm gonna go and fake a certificate of authenticity just as easily, if not easier, right?”
It didn’t matter who you were, Posner added, if you were of note, your signature was being forged.
Fraudulent autographs on baseballs included players such as Gwynn, Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, but also global leaders, musicians, actors and anyone in between. Investigators even found a fake Mother Teresa’s signature on a baseball.
While the investigation and subsequent trials lasted until 2006, MLB launched its authentication program in 2001 as part of “Operation Bullpen” Phase I.
Now, in the midst of the 2024 MLB Playoffs, the league said the program remains the most comprehensive league-wide memorabilia authentication initiative in professional sports.
And after cllct spent a game shadowing baseball’s caretakers in action, it’s difficult to argue otherwise.
Officers in action
As is the case with most games, T and Dan arrived at Citi Field 90 minutes before first pitch, the standard for authenticators across the country.
That figure changes depending on the magnitude of the game. For example, authenticators might arrive earlier than that for a playoff game, or for a record-breaking game in order to make sure they’re ready for any milestones.
Cllct spent the pregame with T, who MLB calls an “Original Sixer," since he has worked New York baseball games since the establishment of Authenticators Inc. in 2006.
Initially, he worked for the Yankees, where he authenticated Derek Jeter’s 3000th hit, before moving on to work with the Mets, where he has been since the end of the 2011 season.
As we walked from the press room to the field, it was clear T is as much at home at Citi Field as any team employee, or even player. Mets shortstop Francisco Lindor, who wasn’t playing this night, even paused his conversation to wave hello to T as we passed by the locker room.
Pregame was used to work out the logistics of the game. T and Dan decided who was handling what side of the field; one would be along the first-base line, the other along third base.
Each side has slightly different responsibilities. Both handle game-used balls that come their way during play, but sometimes one of the authenticators must leave the field to authenticate an item.
For the Mets, typically around the third or fourth inning, the bases are replaced, and the ones used through the top of the third are authenticated. Whoever is on the visitor’s side (third base) will handle authenticating the bases, meaning during that time, any ball that is used will automatically have to be authenticated on the first-base side because that authenticator is the only one present tracking the baseballs.
Other pregame responsibilities include authenticating lineup and bullpen cards and any potential MLB debuts.
Unlike any game you've ever watched
As I took my seat alongside Dan next to the visitor’s dugout, I recalled a piece of advice T had given me before we parted ways: Look for the first hit by each team and the last out. Everything else is in between.
T has authenticated two no-hitters, games that are extremely pressure-packed from an authentication standpoint.
"You only could be at one place at one time,” T said. “So, that's why you always look for that first hit by each team, right? And then the last out.”
When Tyler Megill threw the first pitch of the game, my eyes were locked in on the baseball. I realized I wasn’t really even watching whether the call was a ball or a strike, because that isn’t part of the authenticator’s job. Authenticators have access to an automated play-by-play of the game where they can see the exact pitch type and what the call was to match with the ball. But their job is following the ball, not the count, so I tried to do the same.
I had to look up to the scoreboard to see what the first pitch call was. A sinker inside to CJ Abrams, count 1-0.
The Nationals shortstop then lifted a single to left-center field. I looked down to see if Dan was making any notations and made my first mistake. I took my eyes off the baseball ... two pitches into the game, I had already failed in my apprenticeship.
“This is watching a Major League Baseball game in unlike any manner you've ever watched a baseball game,” Posner said.
It’s the same message he tells new authenticators at each year’s training symposium.
It wasn’t long before I quickly abandoned trying to keep track of each baseball. For someone trained in tracking evidence, it’s just part of the job. For me, it was fruitless.
The first ball I witnessed get authenticated came in the bottom of the first when Jose Iglesias, who was filling in for Lindor, hit a foul ball that trickled to the third-base side. There’s no exact system for which authenticator verifies foul balls, it just depends on which side of the field the ball ends up on for a bat boy to retrieve.
When Iglesias fouled off a fastball on a 2-2 count, the Nationals bat boy jogged over to the ball, picked it up and tossed it to Dan, who had a roll of holograms hanging on the metal banister in front of his seat. The roll is shaped exactly like a roll of duct tape, but is much smoother.
Dan removed a hologram from his roll, and placed it on the ball, before placing it in a bag under his desk.
Each hologram, created by OpSec, U.S. (which does federal government-level contracting), consists of the following:
- Unique two-letter hologram prefix
- Unique serial number for each item that when combined with prefix allows collectors to cross-reference product against the database on MLB.com
- Validation Code containing three randomized letters
- QR Code containing hologram prefix and unique serial number
- Major League Baseball silhouetted batter logo indicates the item is part of the MLB Authentication Program
And if anyone tries to remove the hologram, it will destroy the hologram and any MLB authentication, as well as leave traces of tampering on the item.
When the middle of the third rolled around, Dan, Posner and I exited our seats and headed to a tunnel along the third-base line. There, we waited for the middle of the inning when the grounds crew removed the bases and bought them into the corridor to be authenticated.
This exact process doesn’t occur every night. Sometimes all bases will be authenticated and replaced, sometimes only a single base, sometimes no bases. It depends on the surplus of bases for any game, a Mets employee told cllct.
Dan had brought the bag containing all of the baseballs he’d already authenticated during the game.
As we waited in the tunnel, he opted to use the restroom right next to where we’re standing. The only other people in the passage were Posner, an MLB public relations staffer, a Mets employee and myself.
Still, when he entered the restroom, he brought the bag of baseballs with him. I immediately thought about his nearly three decades in law enforcement. It didn’t matter that the only other people with him were a reporter, a Mets employee and two MLB employees (one of whom is his boss). He was in charge of the “evidence” and wasn’t going to let it out of his sight.
While he was in the bathroom, I voiced this to Posner, who nodded in agreement.
“Chain of command,” he said. “It’s ingrained in them.”
When Dan opened the restroom door, holding the bag of baseballs, I asked him why he brought the baseballs in the restroom with him.
“Chain of command,” he replied, as we all started laughing, though Dan had no idea why.
“I did not tell him to say that,” Posner said.
While we waited, the Mets offense came to life and began pouring on runs. Since Dan wasn’t seated along the third-base line at this time, all balls to be authenticated had to be escorted to T next to the Mets dugout.
Once the inning came to a close, following a four-run Mets barrage, Dan was stationed at the gate where the grounds crew members carried the bases off the field. There, he and the Mets employee who was waiting with us, grabbed the three bases and headed back into the tunnel, where Dan then applied a hologram to each base.
The reason this happened during the game was because the Mets, along several other MLB teams, sell game-used merchandise during the actual game.
There are several different options for what can happen to bases during a game. Some bases are cut up and put into cards and photo frames, while some bases are sold fully intact.
For example, Luisangel Acuña recorded his first hit at Citi Field during the bottom of the third inning. That base, which was authenticated, could then be sold to a fan by the sixth or seventh inning.
“It’s as close to an on-field experience as you can possibly get without actually being on the field,” said James Benesh, the Mets VP of Ballpark Experience.
In the Mets game-used store, fans can purchase foul balls for as little as $25, whereas as a Kodai Senga game-used jersey will fetch as much as $8,000.
During the top of the sixth inning, another Mets employee came to retrieve the bag of balls Dan had authenticated throughout the game in order for the team to prepare them for sale before the game’s end.
The Mets understand the value of in-game memorabilia and have one of the best, if not the best systems in the league, Posner told cllct.
Documenting history
While authenticating memorabilia for fans and collectors is important, the real gravity of the authenticator’s job is documenting history, which ultimately is why any ball that leaves the field of play can’t be authenticated.
Why? Chain of command.
Each piece of memorabilia must never leave the line of sight of the authenticators.
Most pieces of attire — jerseys, hats, gloves, cleats, etc. — are authenticated after the game, as they’re worn by the player throughout the duration. But if a player is changing any part of his attire during the game, the authenticators must know when and be present in order to verify it.
“Say, like (Noah) Syndergaard is pitching,” T said. “He’s pitched seven innings, right? And at the end of the game, they come up to us and say, ‘Oh, he wore this jersey up into the fourth inning. That's no good. You gotta tell us that. If he's gonna change his jersey, we have to get up, and we're going to the locker room to see him change his jersey.
“We put an identity on an item.”
In addition to games, authenticators are at every MLB-sanctioned autograph signing. If the Mets hold an official team signing, authenticators will be there. But if Pete Alonso schedules his own signing, or is signing at an independent card show such as the National Sports Collectors Convention, those autographs cannot be authenticated by MLB.
That said, players can request an authenticator be in attendance at private signings.
In the eighth inning, Acuña blasted the first home run of his big-league career, a shot to left-center field. The overwhelming majority of the time when a player hits a homer in his home stadium, fans keep the ball. But as the music blared and the lights danced at Citi Field, celebrating the home run, someone allegedly threw the ball back.
It was then relayed to the infield where it was eventually given to the Nationals bat boy, who brought it Dan’s way, claiming it was the home run ball.
But there’s nothing that could be done. As soon as the ball exited the field of play, it could no longer be verified. Dan tossed it to a fan. For his job, the ball was inconsequential.
“We know that people are coming into the stadium with balls. Balls are hitting batting practice out into the stands that people may have,” Posner said. “So, it doesn't allow us to have 100% certainty that a ball hit into the stands is what it is, so we stay away from it.
“To be clear, it's not because we don't trust anyone or whatever. You have a standard. You have to live by that standard, and sometimes it doesn't allow you to do everything that would make everybody happy. But the end of the day is the strength of that standard, and our ability to say no is what makes this hologram so strong in the first place.”
The one time when authenticators could verify each home run was during the 2020 season when fans couldn’t attend games, and sweeps could be done in between batting practice and games to ensure the authenticity of each home run.
But there are exceptions to this rule. There is added preparation taken for milestone events, which probably happen once per year, Posner estimates.
Notable career milestones include 500 home runs (plus 600, 700, etc), 3,000 hits, 3,000 strikeouts and 300 wins. On top of this, any all-time records would of course come into play, such as Barry Bonds’ 756th home run.
There are then season milestones such as setting AL, NL or MLB records. When Aaron Judge hit his 62nd home run in 2022, breaking Roger Maris’ American League and Yankee record, MLB was prepared for any game in which it would happen. Once Judge hit 59, each subsequent game had baseballs covertly marked with notations that could then be verified upon retrieval. The baseballs were then introduced in the games by the umpires in specific orders to ensure they would be the “Aaron Judge baseballs.”
And once Judge reached 60, the league actually sent an “Aaron Judge authenticator” to each game whose sole purpose was to certify any items that Judge wanted verified in case he hit another home run. The same was done when Derek Jeter, Adrian Beltre and Ichiro Suzuki were chasing 3,000 hits.
“When something that momentous happens, Posner said, “the way I see it, it’s about recording history and getting it right whatever happens.”
I will 'stand behind it for the rest of my life'
But what does an “Aaron Judge baseball” mean?
Prior to a potential milestone game, a few baseballs — usually not more than two-dozen, according to Posner — will receive markings.
“Some will be visible, and there will be some that we're not going to talk about after this,” Posner said. “We have to have the visible markings on there, because the umpires are involved and because they sequence the ball into play in order.”
Whatever baseballs are not used that night will be recycled for the next game, should the milestone still be in reach. There are then other elements to it, of which Posner said he cannot publicly discuss, which allow the league to have 100% certainty of the baseball.
In the past, Posner has even seen dummy baseballs thrown into a scrum for people trying to obtain the actual milestone ball. But because of this system, those can be easily rejected.
Should a milestone be met, the marked balls will then be taken back, never to be used for a game again.
“There are people who have claimed to have seen our (covert) markings, Posner said. “You cannot see this marking. You cannot see this marking under black light. No one has ever been able to see it. So we're very confident about that.”
“On top of the randomization that we do on every night, which, quite frankly, the authenticator doesn't even tell us until the first pitch of the game. You know, government conspiracies, you can't have more than three people know something. Otherwise, somebody's out there. And that's our rule of thumb.”
MLB used this tactic just two weeks ago when Shohei Ohtani became the first player in league history to record 50 home runs and 50 steals in the same season. The Sept. 19 game at loanDepot Park, where the Marlins play, was actually the first game in which MLB began introducing Ohtani’s marked baseballs this season. The Dodgers’ slugger entered the game with 48 home runs and 49 steals.
Ohtani stole his 50th base in the first inning, following a double to right field. He then hit his 49th home run in the top of the sixth.
It was only after this home run that the umpire then commenced integrating the marked balls, meaning his 49th home run could not be authenticated. But, when Ohtani demolished his 50th homer the following inning, it was marked, and later verified by authenticators at the game.
According to MLB sources, security brought the fan with the ball to meet the authenticator in an undisclosed location that night. The authenticator confirmed the authenticity of the ball with the hologram.
Was there ever a fear MLB would attempt to keep the ball? Absolutely not, said Posner.
“Our business is to say that's the ball that player X hit for the 500th home run, and we're good, that's it. I will put that hologram on it and stand behind it for the rest of my life. The journey of that ball after that is whatever ends up being.”
So, while there is no game-to-game method for the league to check every single home run, it does ensure authenticity for milestones.
The covert-marking application can’t be applied in every game for a few reasons. The first is simply the effort behind the process. Every ball used during a game would have to be marked prior to its start and then introduced in the game in specific order, something that would require far too much manpower from both the league behind the scenes and during the game. The other major reason is for the integrity of the game.
In order to guarantee the legitimacy, the baseballs must be presented in a specific sequence. If Ohtani had hit a home run with Mookie Betts-marked baseballs, the ball would not be certifiable. So, those specific at-bats will be slightly different, according to Posner. There will be a pause and an exchange at home plate with the umpire for accuracy. But doing that for every single player would significantly slow down the course of a game and change routines for batters and pitchers, which the league certainly doesn’t want to infringe on.
“Unfortunately, we don't have a process for doing everything,” Posner said. “So, we do as much as we can.”
Since the program’s inception in 2001, MLB has authenticated more than 10.6 million items. In addition to Judge and Ohtani’s records, other milestones verified by this program include every 3,000th hit, from Rafael Palmeiro in 2005 to Miguel Cabrera in 2022, as well as every 500th home run, from Sammy Sosa in 2003 to Cabrera, again in 2022.
At this point, in year 24 of the Authentication Program, Posner knows most of the players around the league, and he knows how much they value the program’s dedication to history.
In the middle of the chaos ensuing on the field after the Braves conquered the Astros in the 2021 World Series, Freddie Freeman, who made the final out, snuck the final ball into his back right pocket.
“He understood the whole proposition that this is an important ball,” Posner said. “We're going to get it authenticated whatever happens.”
Some players are indifferent about having items authenticated, others have zealous tendencies toward the process.
Cabrera was one of the most eager Posner has ever seen, especially with his bats. After every home run he hit, Cabrera had his bat authenticated, especially at the end of his career. But the Tigers slugger required a particular certification. Cabrera wouldn’t switch bats after each home run. Instead, authenticators developed a system of marking the bat or placing holograms in certain positions where they would not get damaged amid his continued usage. And this would all be done during the game.
Each bat became a chapter of Cabrera’s future Hall of Fame story.
“That's again, a player understanding where they are in history,” Posner said. “He had passed 500 home runs. He had over 3,000 hits. So, you know, every time he used the bat, he was just continuing on that road to Cooperstown.”
Sticking to the standard
Fans all rose from their seats and headed to the exits after the Nationals' Jacob Young flew out to center to end the Mets' 10-1 win.
As the stadium emptied, Dan trotted out to third base, where Mets ground crew members gathered the second set of bases, used from the fourth inning on, to be authenticated.
About 50 items are authenticated every game, Posner said. It’s a system unlike anything else in professional sports. And nearly anything can be authenticated.
Posner recalled pulling corn stalks out of the ground in Iowa so that pieces of corn from the “Field of Dreams” Game could be inserted into Topps Now baseball cards.
“It's a story,” Posner said. “It's an experience much the same way that baseball is, and none of this can happen if you don't have that standard.”
With the MLB playoffs underway, little changes to the program’s blueprint.
There will be more authenticators at each game, and more items will be authenticated. Typically the increased items are all attire-based: jerseys, cleats, gloves, etc. And that growth will expand further during the World Series.
But the overall process remains the same. Playoff games will not have increased covert markings on baseballs.
Even when the Cubs played in the 2016 World Series, in search of breaking a 108-year title drought, there was never a discussion from MLB to mark each baseball. The league was not going to compromise the flow of the physical game.
The only changes that will even happen in the World Series is simply having more authenticators to verify more items. Where a divisional-round game might have four authenticators, a World Series game might have six or seven.
The standard is the standard, and the league doesn’t sway from it. Only milestone baseballs will be marked. Basic home runs will not be authenticated, but every other piece of the game that remains on the field will be.
“I think it's important for people to understand the delineation of this," Posner said. "People know they have something, but they want the world to believe it. ... This hologram in our service really says this is what we witnessed.”
All about the history of the game
I first met Posner in August, when I went to the MLB offices in Manhattan for an initial discussion on the program.
As we sat and chatted in the Tony Gwynn conference room, which obviously revealed its importance as we dove into the program’s history, Posner held a baseball.
“This ball in front of me is actually a pitch thrown by Dylan Cease during his no-hitter (against the Nationals on July 25),” Posner told me. “(It’s) from the third inning. I know who the batter is, I know how hard he threw the pitch. I know whether it was a ball or strike, the pitch type or how many pitches it was used for. So, now you have the ability, because your favorite player is Dylan Cease, to be able to go and find something and be able to own that and interact with it.”
“So how did we get to this point?” he added.
Six weeks later, sitting on a crowded No. 7 train back to Manhattan, I thought about that same question.
No North American sport cherishes its history, sometimes to a fault, the way baseball does. Major League Baseball is the oldest league in the country, by a long stretch.
All-time greats such as Bonds, Pete Rose and Roger Clemens have failed to make the Hall of Fame because they allegedly cheated the game. Whether it be via steroids or gambling, the powers that be have barred them from receiving the ultimate honor, though those powers would argue they did it to themselves.
The sport takes its history and integrity so seriously, even its greatest players are punished for threatening it.
So, when forgers cheated the game, the league took extreme measures to correct it. Now, MLB has a robust, established system, dedicated to its players, its fans and itself.
Yes, there is obviously a notable limitation in not being able to authenticate 99.99% of home runs. But in order for this process to succeed, there must be a standard, and ultimately with the lengths the league goes through to ensure the accuracy of this memorabilia, non-milestone home runs don’t fit that standard.
“We have spent a tremendous amount of money on this program,” Posner said. “And I think, from our standpoint, we probably have a lot to gain, because baseball was really about its history.”
Matt Liberman is a reporter and video producer for cllct.