Not Something to Treasure

Autographing baseballs now seems to be in the same league with baby kissing.

Superior Galleries, a Beverly Hills-based auction house, this week plans to sell a batch of baseballs at a Chicago sports show bearing the autographs of some well-known politicians.

A Bill Clinton-autographed baseball--signed during a campaign stop last year in Portland--carries an estimated value of $500 to $600.

Valued at the same price as the Clinton ball is one signed by former President Ronald Reagan (who once played Hall of Fame pitcher Grover Cleveland Alexander in the film “The Winning Team”).

The auction catalogue says Reagan’s autograph “is the most difficult to obtain living presidential signature on a baseball.”

Gerald Ford’s autograph on a baseball is expected to bring considerably less, no more than $300.

Then there is Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, lowest on the price list. An autographed Bentsen ball is expected to fetch no more than $200.

Bentsen is busy now trying to cut the federal deficit, which was $310 billion for fiscal 1993. That works out to about 1.55 billion Bentsen-autographed baseballs.

Late-Night Mystery

Not long ago, television viewers were surprised to see actor/director Michael Landon starring in a late-night educational infomercial months after he had died.

Now there is a similar situation involving another deceased actor.

Last week, the USA Network aired an infomercial selling a weight-loss cassette tape that was hosted by Robert Reed.

Reed is best known for playing Mike Brady, the father in the 1970s series “The Brady Bunch.”

He died last year.

It’s highly unusual--although not unprecedented--for a dead star to continue appearing in ads.

In the case of Landon, the star had requested before he died that the program continue airing.

A spokesman for the cable channel was unable to provide any details shedding light on the airing of the Reed-hosted program.

Pure Fiction

An item here last week mentioned that some people suggested that the devouring of an attorney by a Tyrannosaurus rex in the Universal Pictures film “Jurassic Park” is another example of lawyer bashing.

One point made by a Universal executive in response was that the lawyer also dies in Michael Crichton’s novel, although he is killed by a different dinosaur.

Actually, the lawyer, Donald Gennaro, doesn’t die in Crichton’s book at all.

Instead, he lives to litigate another day by scrambling into a helicopter in the final pages of the book.

Briefly . . .

IBM’s market value has plunged more than $30 billion since this time last year. . . . The smaller Apple Computer has seen $2 billion shaved off its market value in the same period. . . . What about Darryl Strawberry? “Where Everyone Gets to Play” is the Dodger Stadium advertising slogan this year.