Benny Montgomery knew that it would be difficult to get the signatures of the thousands of baseball cards the card makers sent him. As a potential customer in addition to the draft No. 8 overall by Colorado Rockies inside Draft MLB in 2021he signed endorsement transactions with Topps, Panini, Onyx and Leaf and was required to sign every card sent to him.
Signing and re-signing thousands of cards can become monotonous and, as Montgomery describes it, mind-numbing. Through a contract with four companies, he had to sign a certain number of tokens and return them to each company within a certain time frame.
Montgomery got bored after signing a few hundred cards and decided to write a different name on one of them. He is a fan of Borat movies, so he signed the card as Borat and sent a photo to his agent.
“I realize that people don’t do this, so I was surprised that it seemed like such a creative way to express your personality,” says Montgomery.
He never showed it to anyone else and didn’t think it would be a big deal, but collectors became interested in his autograph, so he thought he was going to break this and Post it on social media to see their reaction.
I was wondering when I had to clarify that. I’m just waiting for this to be pulled…. pic.twitter.com/edO8L2cLYa
– Benny Montgomery (@benny_mont) January 28, 2022
The reason collectors are interested, however, is not because he was the one to pick up draft number 8, but because he became part of a conspiracy theory.
As some of his cards started circulating, fans noticed two different versions of his signature, prompting card-likers to enter investigation mode with the theory that his mother was signing a more unique version of his signature for him.
Rumors and questions spread to Montgomery, who eventually quelled the rumors by showing via video that he actually had beautiful handwriting and two different signatures.
– Benny Montgomery (@benny_mont) January 28, 2022
“They think my mom is helping me sign, which is why one is better than the other,” Montgomery said. “I remember a guy saying, ‘Wow, we have to stop having expectant mothers sign these cards.’ They thought I was faking, so in response, I was bored that day [in] season, so I took a video of me signing two cards, one in the usual way and the other in my weirder way, and posted it. So I basically copy each signature because those are my signatures. “
The video captivated fans and sparked a whole new adventure for Montgomery.
Surprisingly, Montgomery said he didn’t tell his mother what happened. She’s not on social media, so chances are she doesn’t know she’s been hacked in the middle of a card-collecting controversy.
“She couldn’t be more interested in social media, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she didn’t know,” Montgomery said. “She might be proud that someone thinks my signature is hers, but I’m not sure.”
Once the Signaturegate was settled and everyone knew it wasn’t his mother signing his cards, Montgomery decided to continue having fun and interacting with the card collectors who noticed the mini-saga.
Montgomery said: “Everybody thought this signature video was funny and I said, ‘Oh, I have that picture of Borat, so let’s put it on topic’. “I said I was waiting for one of them to find this, thought nothing would happen to it and from there it went viral.”
The Borat signature is on a card numbered 10 out of 150, which means there are only 150 of that particular card. However, the unique signature makes it like one in one as the other 149 signatures will be signed with his real signature.
Montgomery saw how much everyone enjoyed the change and decided he would continue. He signed a card called Benny and the Jets and drew a mustache on his picture.
– Benny Montgomery (@benny_mont) February 20, 2022
Then he writes “Sign here” on another card, where the signature is supposed to be.
– Benny Montgomery (@benny_mont) March 23, 2022
He even signed a card with a braille version of his name at the request of one of his followers.
@Onyx_Authentic https://t.co/Y9L1QRSUJr pic.twitter.com/9KWJ0V1Ku2
– Benny Montgomery (@benny_mont) April 1, 2022
“I waited a month or two when I received a new shipment of Topps and the Benny and the Jets was a bit more complicated than my Borat,” Montgomery said. “That one has even more views, because people are starting to expect it now.”
Montgomery kept going, but once again found himself in a controversial situation when he and a potential client’s colleague Jordan Lawlarwho is part of Arizona Diamondbacks organization, decide to sign someone else’s name on their card. Benny signed his own card as Lawlar and vice versa.
Yo @jordanlawlar did you have the other half? pic.twitter.com/ytOcMd1U0Z
– Benny Montgomery (@benny_mont) March 24, 2022
Although humorous, it has potential issues of authenticity and guaranteeing the signature is real. Nicknames are one thing, but signing another player’s name is what catches the attention of Topps, the creator of the cards he signs.
Montgomery said: “Topps, I know they weren’t very happy. “After we did that, they talked to me and said I couldn’t do it. I guess it was a conflict of interest, so I wasn’t banned from doing it, but I got chills. from that point of view.”
However, not every card maker took issue with it, as Onyx sent Montgomery a set of cards and asked him to do whatever he wanted with the cards. He doesn’t know if the Topps cards with alternate signatures will ever reach fans, but he hopes they will be in circulation. He also hopes he will have the opportunity to continue to show his creative side and interact with fans while being unique with a monotonous and boring mission.
“You can basically turn over a card that has 100 or 200 of them and I can turn it into one of them,” says Montgomery. “I think it reaches out to the fans and gives me some personality and does good things with that. It makes the card so much more valuable, people have put bonuses on the Borat card, because So I want to keep doing that.”
