WHAT’S WITH THE BULL (JERSEYS)
Although other player examples may exist, one oddity I’ve seen through eBay listings is two different companies creating properly sized salesman’s samples of a 1983 White Sox Greg Luzinski jersey.
Sand-Knit made White Sox gamers in ’83, but both Wilson and Rawlings also made size 48 unies of the Bull, complete with extra length, and with minor differences to the real thing.
I don’t believe either version has the 1983 All-Star Game patch on it, and the Wilson version employed a vertical arch-type NOB (Sand-Knit used a standard arch font for the name).
Why Luzinski and why the 1983 Sox, I have no clue…I’m curious if any readers can account for a similar year/team/player arrangement.
MORE CHISOX CHATTER
With the recent acquisition by the Pale Hose of Ken Griffey Jr., Nick Swisher voluntary offered his #30 to the Kid. Swisher will don #1 as of this deal
MORE CHISOX…CAPITAL ACE
The Japanese supplier produced uniforms for the White Sox from 1979-81 (1978 was still Rawlings). Some variances between the 1979-80 issues and those from 1981:
The 1979-80 versions were flag tagged in the collar, although both years found tag printing that washed away after repeated washings, making it a guess, in many cases, as to which season the jersey was worn in.
The 1979-80 versions also used individually lettered NOB’s
The 1981 gamers had, with rare exceptions, NOB plates. A handful of mid-late season call-ups had the 1979-80 type of NOB…I recall seeing such a jersey worn by the late Lynn McGlothen while attending a 1981 game. Also, 1981 issued were not flag tagged…if you have a Fisk or Luzinski of this style, no collar year/set tag should be present.
The 81’s even, ion infrequent occasions, had number plates, sewn over existing numbers on recycled tops. So far, I have seen two such exemplars, both coaches…Art Kusnyer and Orlando Cepeda
SORRY, BILL
I apologize to supreme Ripken Family collector Bill Haelig for not crediting him last week for the information on the O’s wearing their orange BPs in a game. Bill is not just a Cal Jr. collector…he also saves items pertaining to Cal Sr. and Billy, as well. His e-mail is whhp72@yahoo.com .
CHICO’S LUMBER
A recent post on Game Used Forum about a H&B Chico Carrasquel bat made well after the era it was labelled with prompts me to offer some commentary on Carrasquel All-Star game bats, learned firsthand.
My familiarity with Carrasquel came during my two stints on kidney hemodialysis. I was a three times week visitor at a local clinic from 1997-2001, and briefly again in 2006. Carrasquel also was a kidney dialysis patient at the same time, and for a while was on the same shift as I was. We even had one local cab driver who’d pick up Chico at his home in Stickney close to 5AM, drop him off at the clinic, and then come and get me in Berwyn.
We’d end up spending time talking baseball in the waiting area, and Carrasquel mentioned having several All-Star bats. I told him that I might have a chance at selling them, giving him a rough idea of what they might bring. He apparently needed the money, and, the next time we met, handed me four of them, all All-Star Game H&B bats, to try and move for him.
Unfortunately, as it turned out, these were 1980s or ’90s issued bats, with ALL STAR GAME 1950’s markings, but not from the 1950’s era and not done in the exact same manner as the origonals. Sad to say, I had to back off my sale offer, and, with Chico’s broken English, I couldn’t explain the reasons the sale wouldn’t go through from a hobbyist’s viewpoint. Definitely, it was a tough place to be.
I found out later that Carrasquel had a fire at an earlier residence in Chicago, and believe the fire may have claimed the originals he had, subsequently replaced by these modern-issued copies.
OBITUARY
Russ Gibson, a 6-year backup MLB catcher, died at age 69 last Sunday.
Gibson spent three years apiece with the Red Sox and Giants. His rookie season was the year of the Impossible Dream Red Sox, who shocked the baseball world by winning the American League pennant, then taking the Cardinals to the seventh game of the World Series before going down. His manager on that pennant-winning club was recently enshrined Hall of Famer Dick Williams.
CUBS SWEEP BREWERS IN MILWAUKEE!! WORLD SERIES, HERE WE COME!!