ABOUT THE NL CENTENNIAL PATCH
The round patch worn by 11 of the 12 NL teams in 1976 (Montreal abstained and chose to wear an Olympic patch as the 1976 Summers Games host) has been discussed in various places with all sorts of replicas being sold. To assist collectors, the most obvious signs to look for on a real patch are as follows:
a) Raised red rim on the round patch. No raised red rim, no good.
b) Copyright date of 1975 in the body of the patch, preceded by the copyright logo (“C” inside circle). A 1976 copyright date is a major problem.
c) The Copyright date should be embroidered in white on the white background, making it visible only upon close range viewing. If the notation is blue or red, then the patch is as good as dead.
For MEARS Members, this patch and any number of others can be viewed and compared to the replica versions in MEARS Auth, LLC’s article on Replica Patches found in the News Archive Section.
WHITE SOX GARAGE SALE
The White Sox are holding their garage sale of game-used equipment on Saturday, May 17 from 9AM-2PM at U.S. Cellular Field. As always, plenty of jerseys, bats, caps, and other game-used goodies will be available.
MAXIMUM CARRYOVER?
I recently saw a unique 2001 Florida Marlins home jersey. The player was OF Eric Owens. As is the norm for the time no year tags were present; however, the 9-11 flag was intact on the back of the neck.
What made this jersey so noticeable was the Russell manufacturer tag. A 1992 tag (slash on logo is straight, not slanted down) was present on a 2001 jersey! Some kind of record, perhaps? After all, Russell was in the fourth of its five MLB supplier label designs by then and this was the first. Email me or the bulletin board if you hve something verifiably authentic that can top that!
YES, THERE ARE FAKE COMMONS
Fake common jerseys in ML equipment collecting are few and far between, but they do pop up, especially with older knits, when many styles and/or teams available in quantity now were considered scarce or rare 20-25 years ago.
The most recent example I saw was a 1983 Orioles orange alternate of Floyd Rayford. The ’83 orange O’s tops were only worn a few times in ’83, so it may have been considered scarce and desirable in the mid-1980s. This one, however, had two noted flaws: a strip tag in the tail with embroidery font not consistent with known exemplars, and a collar Wilson tag with stitch holes pointing to removal and reattachment. It’s probably the only Floyd Rayford jersey I’ll ever grade Unable To Authentic, but it’s a reminder to keep on your toes and not assume anything just because the player is not a big star.
OBITUARIES
Ray Smith Poole, an end who played for the New York Giants from 1947-52, died of cancer last week at age 86. Poole was a two-sport star at Ole Miss, also adept at baseball. He briefly played in the Chicago Cubs system, but never made it to the Bigs. He appeared on Bowman cards in 1948 and 1951.
Roy Foster died March 21 of unreported causes. He was an OF who played 3 years with the Indians, and was traded to the Rangers before retiring. Any of his Indians jerseys would be desirable…an unaltered 1970 3-D script type, the altered 1970 jersey with solid navy lettering (used in 1971), or his rare fi9rst year knit (red letters and numbers) in 1972.
Finally, Billy Consolo, a 1950s/early 60s IF with the Red Sox and 5 other teams, passed away on March 27th. He also spent most of the 1980s as a coach under Tigers skipper Sparky Anderson. Key jerseys: 1959-60 Senators home or road.