G1X
08-29-2015, 12:49 AM
A heads-up on three items in the current MEARS Auctions. Over the years, they have been really good at correcting or removing items when I have provided evidence and documentation to them, but they have not provided an adequate response on the below items at this point other than to say that they would respond (my emails were sent 8/22 and 8/25). MEARS is one of my favorite auction companies, so it really pains me to make this post, but it also pains me to see items listed with inaccuracies.
1. Lot #386 – Southern California Sun Jersey. I had a discussion with MEARS on this jersey back in the April when it appeared in their auction taking place at that time. I provided photos from each game where the Sun wore the magenta colored jerseys showing that they never wore this particular style in a game. MEARS pulled the jersey from the auction at that time, so I was surprised to see it listed again in the Game Used section. This style is seen in publicity photos (programs, ads, etc.), so it appears that this style was a proto-type that may have originally been intended to be their game jerseys. Since the jersey is not game worn, it is probably more accurate to describe it as a team-issued prototype jersey used by the team for publicity photos, but never used in game action. (Note in MEAR's description that it is never referenced as being "game worn". However, it is listed in the "Game Used" section, so in my opinion, that's an insinuation that it was game worn.)
2. Lot #375 – Chicago Cardinals Jersey. Regardless of the paperwork that accompanies this jersey, it is not a Chicago Cardinals jersey. The Cardinals did not add numbers to the sleeves until their third season in St. Louis in 1962 as seen in an abundance of photo and film evidence (moved from Chicago to St. Louis in 1960). The Gridiron Uniform Data Base agrees with me on when the sleeve numbers were added as seen on their website. http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/cardinals.html I continue to see this style in various auctions being identified as Chicago Cardinals jerseys. Forget the letters of provenance and COAs on these jerseys - the photos tell the tale.
3. Lot #204 – 2007 Royce Clayton Boston Red Sox Spring Training Jersey – Clayton could not have worn this particular jersey for Boston in Spring Training of 2007. He signed in November 2006 with Toronto and was with the Blue Jays until he was released in August of 2007. The Red Sox picked him up a few weeks later as insurance in their run to the World Series. He was granted free agency after the season and never played again. (See all of Clayton’s transactions at this link http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/claytro01.shtml). The confusion on this one is the way MLB describes the jersey in its data-base. It reads: “Session Name: PRE-SEASON CLUBHOUSE Session Date: March 18, 2014”. This simply means that the jersey was picked up by the MLB Authenticator on a clubhouse sweep prior to the 2014 season (March 18). They are not saying that it is a pre-season jersey, and they are not even specifically stating that the jersey was assigned to Clayton https://secure.mlb.com/mlb/authentication/results_pop.jsp?enterType=EK&enterId=950055 To further complicate the matter, Clayton was with Boston for only about a month of the regular season, yet he ended up wearing both #3 and his more traditional #11 (he wore #10 and #11 with most of the many teams he played with). Nevertheless, he is the only player who wore #3 in the regular season, so it is possible that it is a team-issued Clayton home jersey from the 2007 regular season (Clayton was wearing size 48 during that era), but not the pre-season since he was never with them in the spring of 2007.
Hope this information is helpful.
Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net
Always looking for World Football League jerseys (1974 and 1975)
1. Lot #386 – Southern California Sun Jersey. I had a discussion with MEARS on this jersey back in the April when it appeared in their auction taking place at that time. I provided photos from each game where the Sun wore the magenta colored jerseys showing that they never wore this particular style in a game. MEARS pulled the jersey from the auction at that time, so I was surprised to see it listed again in the Game Used section. This style is seen in publicity photos (programs, ads, etc.), so it appears that this style was a proto-type that may have originally been intended to be their game jerseys. Since the jersey is not game worn, it is probably more accurate to describe it as a team-issued prototype jersey used by the team for publicity photos, but never used in game action. (Note in MEAR's description that it is never referenced as being "game worn". However, it is listed in the "Game Used" section, so in my opinion, that's an insinuation that it was game worn.)
2. Lot #375 – Chicago Cardinals Jersey. Regardless of the paperwork that accompanies this jersey, it is not a Chicago Cardinals jersey. The Cardinals did not add numbers to the sleeves until their third season in St. Louis in 1962 as seen in an abundance of photo and film evidence (moved from Chicago to St. Louis in 1960). The Gridiron Uniform Data Base agrees with me on when the sleeve numbers were added as seen on their website. http://www.gridiron-uniforms.com/cardinals.html I continue to see this style in various auctions being identified as Chicago Cardinals jerseys. Forget the letters of provenance and COAs on these jerseys - the photos tell the tale.
3. Lot #204 – 2007 Royce Clayton Boston Red Sox Spring Training Jersey – Clayton could not have worn this particular jersey for Boston in Spring Training of 2007. He signed in November 2006 with Toronto and was with the Blue Jays until he was released in August of 2007. The Red Sox picked him up a few weeks later as insurance in their run to the World Series. He was granted free agency after the season and never played again. (See all of Clayton’s transactions at this link http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/claytro01.shtml). The confusion on this one is the way MLB describes the jersey in its data-base. It reads: “Session Name: PRE-SEASON CLUBHOUSE Session Date: March 18, 2014”. This simply means that the jersey was picked up by the MLB Authenticator on a clubhouse sweep prior to the 2014 season (March 18). They are not saying that it is a pre-season jersey, and they are not even specifically stating that the jersey was assigned to Clayton https://secure.mlb.com/mlb/authentication/results_pop.jsp?enterType=EK&enterId=950055 To further complicate the matter, Clayton was with Boston for only about a month of the regular season, yet he ended up wearing both #3 and his more traditional #11 (he wore #10 and #11 with most of the many teams he played with). Nevertheless, he is the only player who wore #3 in the regular season, so it is possible that it is a team-issued Clayton home jersey from the 2007 regular season (Clayton was wearing size 48 during that era), but not the pre-season since he was never with them in the spring of 2007.
Hope this information is helpful.
Mark Hayne
Gridiron Exchange
gixc@verizon.net
Always looking for World Football League jerseys (1974 and 1975)