All,

If you're one of the many bidders or watchers on this jersey
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and think that it is legitimately Richie Hebner's jersey, you may have missed a couple of key details in the photos.

First off, I would like to say that Kruk Cards is an honest shop. I do not believe that they are trying to deceive anyone with this listing. I just feel that they are not experts in the game used area and do not realize what they have here. This is evident from communication with them regarding this particular jersey.

Richie Hebner Mets items seem to command a premium these days... and that is because they are rare. He only played with them for 1 year: 1979. Hence, the number of legitimate game used home and roads from that one year are very few. It is no big surprise that once one finally surfaces, many Mets collectors will be all over it...

However, a true Hebner jersey would have a strip tag that contains HIS player number (3). A correct 1979 strip tag for Hebner should read: XX 79 3 (where "XX" would indicate the size of the jersey). This one reads "18" instead; the number worn by Joel Youngblood that year. Even more evidence that this jersey was made for Youngblood can be found in the enormous sized nameplate applied to the jersey. A short name like HEBNER would have taken a much smaller nameplate. This one however wraps all the way around the jersey in the shape of a "horseshoe", with many inches of space before the "H" and after the "R." The only reason for such a large nameplate anomaly is that the jersey once had the extra large YOUNGBLOOD nameplate, and that nameplate was stripped off, as the Mets did to all of their jerseys just before recycling them to their minor league affiliates. When the jersey was ultimately restored, a nameplate the size of the old one was needed because it would have been the only way to cover up the stitch holes that the old one would have left. In my opinion, the subsequent owner of the jersey did not want a "Youngblood"... they wanted a "Hebner."

Nick