How jerseys acquire wear

[kingjammy24]

Here is the tagging on a 1994 Blue Jays jersey. The tagging is completely correct in every aspect. I have little, if any, doubt that it's completely legit.

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/3796/ward7vc.jpg

Here is the 'mystery':

The "31" in the tag undeniably refers to the uniform number. #31 was worn solely by relief pitcher Duane Ward. Ward played for the Jays, and only the Jays, from 1986-1995. During that entire time period, he wore only #31.
In 1994, Duane sat out the entire season due to surgery.
In 1995, he attempted to come back and played in a total of 4 games, pitching a total of 2.2 innings. After playing his final game on 06-22-1995, he permanently retired from baseball.

The tag has so much wear that it's almost completely faded. Given that Ward did not play a single game in 1994 and pitched in only 2.2 innings in 1995 (his final season), how did the tag manage to acquire such an incredible amount of wear?

(The Blue Jays have told me they typically do not re-use jerseys from one player to another over the course of 2-3 yrs like the Yankees do. Additionally the Jays sewed the names directly on to the jerseys in 1994, thereby making name removal difficult. I don't believe this Ward jersey was used after 1995 by someone else).

I have a theory but I wanted to see what others on this Forum might think. Anyone? Any ideas?

Rudy.

[Yankwood]

Perhaps the one time they washed it they used All TempraCheer with bluing crystals.:D

[suave1477]

Hello KingJammy, it sounds pretty good to me, well I can definitely vouch for the Yankees part of your story they do continously use over and over the same jerseys, but your story about the jays seems reasonable. I am sure given that Ward used the same number his whole caqreer there were times when he re used the same one.

[BULBUS]

you said he sat out all of 1994. maybe he sat it out on the bench, in his uniform, supporting his teammates?

[trsent]

This sounds like a case for Angela Landsbury.

[Swoboda4]

Even if Ward got to use it the whole season it wouldn't look like that.

[Yankwood]

Duane Ward once told me the Blue Jays players used to wax their cars with his jerseys.

[BaseballGM]

Rudy, I have no idea. My 94 Jays jersey has the Wilson tag looking almost brand new. -Kevin

[suave1477]

Rudy if I were you I would tell everyone the jersey were all good until one day your wife by accident thought it was one of your dirty shirts and she put it in the wash with clorox and the tags got bleached lol lol lol:D

[Nathan]

When I was coaching football (being a smaller school, all coaches handled something in addition), I'd collect the pants and jerseys after every game, bag them, and they'd be laundered by an outside company. Then on Thursday, they'd ship them back to us.

The only reason I bring that up is because every pair of game pants and every jersey was collected; those who were injured would simply not be issued pants, but they would have their jersey on the sidelines and then relinquish it after the game. In a 10-game regular season (more with playoffs), there'd be a small amount of wash wear; over the course of 162 games, it's entirely possible that Ward's jersey was actually laundered after every single game and the result is that there's no ink left on the tags.

One other thing from football; the pants would be re-used year after year, and each player's number would be marked with permanent ink. It was possible to do a complete chronology of prior players by looking at that ink (which never faded), but I never saw the wash tags last more than 2 years before they completely faded to white (and these were a very deep shade of dark color pants).

[kingjammy24]

My original theory was that Ward pretty much spent almost every game on the bench/in the bullpen. Injured but still technically dressed for each game as a show of support. As such, his uniform was laundered just like a game-worn uniform would've been.

I'm also wondering if the buyer of this jersey also possibly wore the jersey and laundered it themselves a few times.

At any rate, an interesting little image that suggests that a jersey can play in no games and yet still exhibit a ton of wear.

Rudy.