Rawlings - why are some missing the set tag?

[kingjammy24]

Here's a question I've wondered about for a while.

Why do some Rawlings jerseys from the late 80's/early 90's not
have the standard set/year flag tag?

One explanation I've heard is that these are spring-training
jerseys.

I have no idea why some have the set/year tag and others do not.
There doesn't seem to be any pattern to it in regards to specific teams or specific years.

Anyone?

Rudy.

[R. C. Walker]

Uniform tagging is not an exact science. Sometimes there is no pattern, standard, rhyme or reason to “why”. That’s just the way it is.

When in doubt, call it a Spring Training jersey.

[Birdbats]

Rudy,

I've seen several without the proper year/set flag. I suspect many have been removed from the jerseys of lesser players (you can actually see where the stitiching has a gap) and used to fake other jerseys. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I've seen too many bad jerseys with good tags... and too many good jerseys (from coaches, bench players, etc.) missing them.

Jeff

[apujols04]

Rudy,

I've seen several without the proper year/set flag. I suspect many have been removed from the jerseys of lesser players (you can actually see where the stitiching has a gap) and used to fake other jerseys. Maybe I'm just cynical, but I've seen too many bad jerseys with good tags... and too many good jerseys (from coaches, bench players, etc.) missing them.

Jeff

Jeff, what do you think exactly about the Musial jersey I have? You said there is a similar one in the Cardinals HOF Museum? Could the jersey I have ever been worn by Stan Musial during an MLB event? I would appreciate your help. I noticed my jersey is missing the year tag as well. Thanks.

[Birdbats]

I think your Musial was made in 1966 or later after the Cards changed the design of the birds-on-bat. Note the change in design from the 1964 jersey (Ray Washburn, currently on display at the Cardinals HOF Museum) and the 1966 Musial replica jersey (worn by the Musial mannequin at the Museum).

327

328

It might have been made for Stan to wear in spring training, for an old timer's game, or just for on-the-field appearances. Could be a salesman's sample. Or, it could just be an out-and-out fake (a real blank jersey with Stan's name and number added to it later). If I remember, yours is a road jersey, so it wouldn't have been used for anything held in St. Louis. I think the chain stitching in the tail was done by an amateur -- it's not as crisp as normal chain stitching and I believe it's in the wrong location relative to the Rawlings tag.

I'm not really sure what your jersey is... but based on the design of the birds-on-bat logo alone, I'm pretty sure it's not a gamer from his playing days.

Jeff

[kingjammy24]

Jeff,

Thanks for the insight.
It's occurred to me that the best, high-end fakes are created by cannibalizing other legit, game-worn jerseys from common players.
After reading your post about how some flag tags are removed from commons in order to doctor up other jerseys, I started looking through my library of tags and lo and behold, I started to notice on several manufacturer tags which were missing flag tags, that the side (left, right, top, or bottom) of the manufacturer tag which was supposed to have the flag tag was sewn up very oddly. More specifically, if you look at a standard Rawlings or Russell tag, the stitches are clearly done by a machine. You can tell because of the perfect uniformity in the stitching. Yet the sides with the missing flag tags would often seemed to suffer from these issues:

- stitching of a different color than the rest of the tag stitching. I saw one Rawlings tag, missing a flag tag, which had the top, left, and bottom sides stitched in white thread. The right side, which is where the flag tag was supposed to be, was stitched in grey thread.

- the stitching on one side would have noticeably larger stitches than the other 3 sides. That is, 3 sides would have 1/4" stitches and the flagtag side would have 1/3" stitches.

- the stitches on the flag-tag side clearly didn't fall into the original "stitch holes". That is, once you rip a stitch out, it leaves a hole where it was previously sewn in. If you see these holes, then it's obvious the item was re-stitched.

- the stitches clearly are not the same in 'style' on the flagtag side as they are on the other 3 sides. In some examples, the flagtag side looked to have been re-stitched by hand. The stitches were crooked, for example, compared to the perfect stitching of the other 3 sides.

At any rate, it wasn't something I really noticed previously.
Thanks for pointing out such an interesting issue.

Rudy.