MORE LEGIT JERSEY ODDITIES
Recent viewings on eBay and a trip on Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine have led me to some more unusual jerseys that are, or may, be the real deal after all.
Jose Cardenal was a diminutive fellow who played for roughly 17 years in the Majors. He began the 1971 season with the St. Louis Cardinals, but was dealt to Milwaukee during the season. Being a little guy, it was amusing to see a ’71 Brewers home flannel of his owned, at the time, by Brewers collector and Miller Park program seller Rich Lulloff. The jersey had Cardenal’s #1 added to the back, but did not have a number change…the jersey was originally a size 38 Bat Boy jersey, which was blank-backed. How often does a batboy shirt end up being used by a Major League veteran?
Speaking of Brewers, a first I saw on eBay recently was a Majestic gamer using a pre-2000 Majestic BP jersey tag. The jersey was an alternate worn by Milwaukee benchwarmer Jason Conti, and had normal and complete 2003 strip tagging in the collar. The oddity was the tail-located 1998-99 Majestic label as found on BP attire. That was the first time I saw a carryover of a BP jersey Majestic label onto a game Majestic jersey.
Finally, I didn’t try to photo match this item, so I can’t verify it as game-worn, but a seeming oddity on the piece was verified with a photo in the eBay listing that at least created a style-match. The jersey was a Reebok 2004 Chargers powder blue Ladanian Tomlinson top. The oddity on this item (although I’ve also seen it on a small number of Reebok issued Throwback styles in 2001-03) was the lack of an NFL neck logo on the LT jersey. The eBay-listed jersey was sans logo, and so was the jersey LT wore in the photo. Like I said, without hands-on inspection and access to the MEARS Database, I can’t positively peg it as a game-used jersey…but the lack of neck logos on both shirt and game photo means that I can’t automatically dismiss it, either…at least until I could perform more research.
NBA FINALS JERSEY BREAKDOWN
The 2009 NBA Finals found the Orlando Magic wearing only their basic home and road uniforms in all 5 games. The Lakers, meanwhile, wore their purple road threads for all three Orlando-based games, but split the styles in Games 1 and 2 at the Staples Center, wearing the standard gold home unies for the first game, and the Sunday home alternate white outfits for the second game.
JERSEY ODDITIES THAT ARE NOT LEGIT
I also saw a pair of jerseys on The Bay that were lacking in authenticity for visible reasons.
For starters, a 1973 Brewers road knit of Jerry Bell was offered, with a slightly errant numeric font on the front, and a very errant font on the team nickname on the front. “BREWERS” was affixed in serif bearing letters, whereas the BREWERS front on both home and road knits of the era are sans-serif. This poorly-done counterfeit may well have been a 1970s/early 1980s creation, put together in an era where certain teams were very tough to find jerseys of in the hobby (and back then, the Brewers were among them), and even a common could be a $200 or more sale when found. Research sources were nothing like they are in 2009, and a rather uneducated hobby market of 30 or so years ago may have accepted this fake, obvious in 2009, as genuine back then.
Another jersey that isn’t what it ought to be seen on eBay recently was a 2001 Rams home jersey of Orlando pace. The jersey had proper collar and tail tagging for a 2001 Reebok jersey, as well as the correct NFL neck logo, but still had one noticeable flaw…the numbers were your basic serifed block numbers, last used by the Rams in 2000. In 2001, the team went to a more stylized numeric font, which this Pace piece should have had, but didn’t.
While we’re at it, another “game used” piece advertised on the Bay was a road Indiana State Larry Bird shirt. The jersey was made by Starter, a company that, as far as I know, didn’t make jerseys for anybody in the late 1970s. A cheesy looking name/year tag accompanied the Starter label, leading me to believe it was a retail item.
OBITUARIES
Dusty Rhodes, a hero for the underdog New York Giants in their 1954 World Series upset of the Cleveland Indians, died June 17 at age 82. Rhodes hit 2 home runs in that 4-game sweep, both off Hall of Famers (Bob Lemon and Early Wynn). He played for the Giants in New York from 1954-57, and for them in San Francisco in 1959.
Jack Littrell, a 1950s infielder, died at age 80 on June 9. Littrell played for the Philadelphia A’s in 1952, the Kansas City A’s in 1954-55, and the Cubs in 1957.
Ray Hamrick, a wartime MLBer, died at age 87, also on June 9. He played at both middle infield positions for the Phillies in 1943-44.
Woodie Held, a shortstop-outfielder who played in the Show in 1954 and from 1957-69, died June 11. he was 77. Held’s entire career in the Majors was in the American league, where he played for 7 of the 10 teams in the circuit before the 1969 expansion. Seven of those seasons were in Cleveland Indians flannels, and he also served as a back-up on the World Champion Orioles in 1966. Held also had stops with the Yankees, Kansas City A’s, (expansion) Senators, Angels and White Sox.
Hal Woodeshick, a southpaw pitcher who played in the Bigs in 1956 and also from 1958-67, died June 14th at age 76. He was on the first rosters of two different expansion teams (1961 Senators and 1962 Colt .45s), and finished his MLB career in grand style, earning a World Series ring with the 1967 World Champion Cardinals.
Finally, Frank Dasso, a pitcher with the 1945-46 Reds, died on June 8. He was 91.
SAM-ME: YOU REALLY DIDN’T SURPRISE ME