Orioles collectors, an interesting jersey

[hblakewolf]

Forum readers-

Here is an interesting jersey:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Cal-Abrams-Pat-K...QQcmdZViewItem

Per the seller, this jersey spans a period of 25 years! Cal Abrams in 1954 to Pat Kelly in 1979!

What about Wes Stock in 1961 or Mike Epstein in 1966 ?

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[both-teams-played-hard]

Brooks Robinson's ML debut was 1956. According to this listing, Brooks changed his vocation from Sporting Goods retailer to ballplayer.

Enough jokes, what is this jersey anyway? High School? Minors? Baltimore O's? The laundry tag is consistent with MacGregor and Rawlings of the 60s-early 70s.

[MSpecht]

Wasn't the last time Mike Epstein wore a Size 38 like in Third Grade ??

[bigtime59]

Several of these jerseys have turned up on eBay recently. This one is carrying the highest initial bid I've seen. It's POSSIBLE that the O's threw Brooks a bone by having his company work up a bunch of TBC jerseys, but I can't say for certain. 1979 is a little outside my period of knowledge, and 1954 definitely is.

[Mike Grueber]

I've never been a collector of game-worn baseball jerseys, but I do seem to recall that there was an article in Sports Illustrated in the late 1970s which mentioned that Brooks Robinson's company made the first set of orange jerseys that the Orioles wore way back then.


Mike Grueber

[MSpecht]

A little off subject, but here's a flyer from Brooks" company.... couldn't find a date on it though.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...Name=WDVW&rd=1

[MSpecht]

This seems to support Mike G's memory, but I couldn't access the entire article:

source : Diamond Duds , November 1993 (Vol 3 Issue 6)
Article- All Orange O's uniform -- Rarest of the Doubleknits?
Named People - Brooks Robinson
Topics - Orioles. Powers Sporting goods; Brooks Robinson Sporting goods

[mcnallypalmercuellardobson]

Good memory Mike...Brooks' company did make the O's first orange jersey in '71 (the year of the four, twenty-game winners if anyone remembers).
Unfortunately, the orange jerseys also came with orange pants and the team suffered through about seven games in 'em before clearer heads prevailed.
Boog Powell, for one, was most relieved.

[Yankwood]

Boog was then sent to Cleveland where he donned an all red Indian uniform and was referred to by a Cleveland announcer as looking like a "giant blood clot".

[mcnallypalmercuellardobson]

If my memory serves me right, he was also referred to in that Sports Illustrated article (featuring the orange uniforms) as looking like a
"giant pumpkin!
Pretty easy target back then for the hoary cliches. In today's juiced era, Boog wouldn't even stand out.