Pirates game jerseys, 1992...input appreciated.

[sox83cubs84]

I saw a 1992 Pirates road jersey on eBay, and the "set 2" Rawlings flag tag (midseason order), a tag I've seen on numerous 1992 Pirates Rawlings gamers, led me to wonder if, contrary to some conventional wisdom, the Bucs also wore Russell gamers that season?

I scanned several sites and a bunch of baseball cards up for bids on The Bay, and did, indeed, see a few player photos of Pirates players wearing Russell jerseys. The latest of these in terms of date (on Getty) was May 15.

Now that I've started the ball rolling, can anyone in the Forum membership offer information as to the following?

1) Does someone have a precise date (as opposed to "after May 15") to pin down the Pirates' changeover from Russell unies to Rawlings garb?

2) Does anyone have a photo they can show on this site of a 1992 Pirates player wearing a Russell HOME jersey. It's likely (but not certain) that the Bucs wore Russell at home, as well, in that early-season time frame...photographic evidence would clinch it. The Russell photos I viewed were all in the road grey style.

Any input is appreciated.

Dave Miedema

[tcfor3]

Re: Pirates game jerseys, 1992...input appreciated.

Dave,

Here is some info that may prove helpful.

I was an assistant baseball coach at a small division III college in ohio in 1993 and the Russell uniform rep offered our school game worn/issued uniform pants from the Pittsburgh Pirates and Cleveland Indians that were tagged 1992 along with the uniform numbers for each player and the players last name also tagged into the waistband to use as game uniforms and practice pants. We bought all the Indians pants for games as the schools colors were red, white and blue and used the Pirates as practice pants. Some of the pants were tagged with just a uniform number and no player name.

The Russell rep told us that the pants were returned to Russell by the teams because they were not tapered and cut the way the Major Leaguers wanted them so Russell had to redo the orders for the teams.

I don't know if there were other teams that were also available as we were only offered the Pirates and Indians pants.

This may have led to teams ordering uniforms from Rawlings for the 1992 season or reusing 1991 uniforms until the Russell orders were redone.

[sox83cubs84]

Re: Pirates game jerseys, 1992...input appreciated.

That's a possibility, although the Indians didn't switch to Rawlings in 1992...they used Russell the whole season. Still, I do know that many teams were not satisfied with Russell's initial uniform offerings in 1992. That being the case, some teams may have reordered from Russell while others (the Pirates and Seattle, for example) decided to turn back to 1991 official supplier Rawlings. Thanks for the input.

Dave Miedema