Singular Approach to a Signature Hobby If you wanted to buy an official Rawlings baseball from MLB.com, it would cost $16.99. But if you were willing to let Hayden Penn write his name on it first, the same ball could be had for $5. For those scoring at home, that would make the value of Penn's autograph negative $11.99. Welcome to the strange and wonderful world of MLB Auctions. Over the last few years, I have amassed a rather quirky collection using a tried-and-true method: I sort by price on MLB.com from lowest to highest, then look for the gems. My personal favorites are balls signed by pitchers imbued with the Latin gravitas, and by that, I mean they look more like amateur bowlers than professional ballplayers. For $40 and less, I have acquired balls signed by Runelvys Hernandez (sent home by the Kansas City Royals because of his weight), Sidney Ponson (no extra charge, despite his knighthood in Aruba), Ray King (nicknamed the Hefty Lefty by the former St. Louis Cardinals manager Whitey Herzog) and more. I even splurged, spending $50 to get a ball with Mickey Lolich's signature. The price seemed fair considering Lolich is the granddaddy of plus-size pitchers. It is not that I do not appreciate top players. I also have baseballs signed by Stan Musial, Nolan Ryan, Willie Mays and more. But over the years, when friends and relatives have gone through my collection, they never pick up the Mays ball and want to talk about him. More often they go for the baseball signed "Mike Norris: Black Ace" and comment with a mix of incredulity and amusement. Autographs as inexpensive as Penn's ball are rare but not unheard of. The ball from David Ortiz's 50th home run in 2006 may have gone for a site-record $25,750, but the minimum bid for many balls is $5, with bid increments of $10. A signature from a player like Penn, who was briefly a top prospect in the Baltimore organization before compiling a 9.51 earned run average in parts of four seasons, is susceptible to a single-bid auction. His starring role for the Chiba Lotte Marines in the 2010 Japan World Series did not seem to resonate in this country. "It's like opening a pack of baseball cards," said Noah Garden, MLB.com's executive vice president for revenue. Every kid opening a pack wants that magical card. You can't have everything have a reserve price. We don't bat 1.000. Sometimes, something goes up and it doesn't match the demand we thought it would. A recent search on the site yielded a number of amusing options in the $15 to $40 range. Billy Ripken chose to include his career fielding percentage (.987) on a ball he signed. Roy White inscribed the impressive boast of "Most Games LF, NYY." You could even get a ball autographed by the Raging Bull himself, Jake LaMotta, though it is unclear why you would want a baseball signed by a boxer. "The idea was to provide something that was broader in scope," Garden said. You can always go to the store and buy the Jeter ball, but people are fans of all kinds of different players and teams. As for my collection of heavyweights, to make it complete, I would need a ball signed by Rich Garces, the former Red Sox reliever, with an inscription of "El Guapo." I have yet to find it, but it is a safe bet that I will keep looking. Benjamin Hoffman spent $45, which could have gone to his daughter's college education, on a ball signed by Dmitri Young. Colleges come and go, but very few baseballs are signed "Da Meat Hook."