Wanted Oakland/KC A's caps

[gotagreatdog]

Looking for:

KC A's 1963-67, green with KC logo
Oakland A's 1971-72 green/gold, A's logo with single serif

[sfgiantsfan44]

Hi! I have available for sale a 1960's Kansas City Athletics game used/worn cap by Mike Hershberger. It is made by Roman Pro. Any interest? If so, I can email you photos. I am asking $95 postpaid.
Thanks, Andy alwysyakn@aol.com

[Insomniac186]

Hi! I have available for sale a 1960's Kansas City Athletics game used/worn cap by Mike Hershberger. It is made by Roman Pro. Any interest? If so, I can email you photos. I am asking $95 postpaid.
Thanks, Andy alwysyakn@aol.com

How can that be if Roman Pro didn't exist until 1977?

[sfgiantsfan44]

Roman Pro was founded in 1936. Tim McAuliffe Inc., founded in 1896, used Roman Pro for their caps and uniforms. Roman Pro also supplied for Wilson caps. I have owned this 1960's Kansas City A's cap used by Mike Hershberger since 1975 when I bought it from a dealer in Sports Collectors Digest. It is the real deal.
Any other questions, please email me at alwysyakn@aol.com
Thanks, Andy Sandler

[Tallyman77]

Rest assured......if it is from the 1960's, it will definitely not have a Roman Pro label of any kind.

-Walt

Tallyman77

[Insomniac186]

Roman Pro was founded in 1936. Tim McAuliffe Inc., founded in 1896, used Roman Pro for their caps and uniforms. Roman Pro also supplied for Wilson caps. I have owned this 1960's Kansas City A's cap used by Mike Hershberger since 1975 when I bought it from a dealer in Sports Collectors Digest. It is the real deal.
Any other questions, please email me at alwysyakn@aol.com
Thanks, Andy Sandler

The Leslie Company/KM Pro Cap Company provided caps for McAullife. Roman provided the embroidery only. The caps were labeled "McAuliffe" until the 1969 season, and "KM Pro" until the 1977 season. When Leslie/KM when bankrupt at the end of 1976, their equipment was sold to Roman (which then began making their own caps) and KM boss Harold Aronson bought equipment as well and founded "Devon Professional Cap".

Bob Mazzola (who ran Roman Pro), personally emailed me info on Roman Pro and said "Roman supplied the embroidery to all of the clubs before expansion through it's predecessor agent, the KM PRO company. After expansion Roman did the embroidery for more than half of the new clubs." Mazzola now runs an embroidery company called "Apparel 2000". On their website (in the "About Us" section http://apparel2000.net/embroidery_digitizing.html#aboutus), it says: "In the early 70's one of our best clients in the headwear industry was closing its doors. It was decided that the company should start manufacturing baseball caps. Roman Pro was created."

Many auction houses and sports memorabilia dealers and catalogs have been fooled by Roman Pro caps because they were nearly identical to the originals.

[sfgiantsfan44]

I thought I bought this in the 1970's but if you spoke with the owner of Roman Pro, I believe you.
Thanks for the update.

[xpress34]

For History's sake, after the creation of the 59/50 by New Era in 1954, as New Era picked up more and more teams business in MLB, they were making most of the caps for the other companies via 'private label' as they had the largest factory for producing baseball caps.

By the 60's they did 'private labeling' for McCauliffe/KM Pro and they were making all of Wilson's hats 'private label' by the end of the 60's and into the 70's.

- Smitty