Queston For Rob Steinmetz - Ripken Jersey

[ripkengamers]

Rob,
Universal Rarities has a 1995 Ripken Alt jersey on auction with a Lampson / Global authenication. Have you personally seen this jersey and can you comment on it?? Your reply is greatly appreciated. Thanks.

http://www.urauctions.com/site/bid/b...etauctionid=56

[RobSteinmetz]

I did not examine the '95 Ripken. I can't comment on who might have examined the jersey before I came on board with Global, but I know they employed Dave Bushing and Dan Knoll for some time. Being a '95, it's possible that it was authenticated several years ago. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

Best,

Rob Steinmetz
Authentic Gamers, Inc.
www.authenticgamers.com

[hblakewolf]

Rob-
I have a black alternate Ripken from 1997. A fellow Forum reader and huge Ripken collector, Dan Derluth, sent me additional photos of the jersey in question. The auction house emailed him photos of the name plate. Compared to my 1997 jersey, the letters on the 1995 and also the plate are suspect. The boarder around the plate on the 1995 jersey is small, and likewise, the R and P in RIPKEN are a different style letter than my 1997. It is always possible that the 1995 jerseys had a differnt letter and plate style. I do not have any 1995 black O's alternates, however, maybe a fellow Forum reader does and could provide some insight here.

Likewise, the year tag on my jersey reads a full year, 1997, as compared to a two diget number, 95.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[kingjammy24]

Here is an image of the back of Ripken during a game in 1995:



Howard, if you can post the pic you have of the back of the Universal Rarities '95 Alternate, then we can all have a look see.


Rudy.

[mattysdad]

Here are some images of my 1995 Orioles Alternate Chuck Cottier jersey. I obtained this jersey from Kim Stigall at Ballpark Heroes so I'm very certain it's 100% legit. The year tagging appears to be a good match with the auction Ripken, but my photo of the back of the jersey showing the nameplate is "low resolution" - I can email higher resolution images of the nameplate if interested. BTW - does the "R" in COTTIER match the "R" in the auction RIPKEN? Let me know if I can help with anything else.

Jim

[kingjammy24]

For the '95 black alternates, it seems the Orioles took their regular "orange with black outline" font and then put the whole thing on a white backing. So, going from outside in, you've got a white/black/orange font. In this respect, the picture I posted is useless. It only shows the orange/black with no white backing. (It does show a substantially larger nameplate though). I have not been able to find any pictures of a closeup of the '95 alternate nameplates to determine whether certain letters should have spaces in them as per Howard's comments. Personally, I think the UR auction jersey is the correct font but I can't find any conclusive evidence of the subleties of certain letter spacing.

I do think the nameplate on the UR jersey is a little small.

Regarding the tagging: from my research, the Orioles used a 2 digit
format to denote the year for the years 1992-1995. They switched to a 4 digit format in 1996. Jerseys from 1996 and 1997 would show a 4 digit format. A 2 digit format should be correct for 1995.

Rudy.

[bigtime59]

Based on what I have in the way of Orioles jerseys I am willing to bet real American dollars that jersey is
ABSOLUTELY BOGUS!
And I don't need to see the stinkin' back, either.
1) That "Orioles" script pattern is late 1996 only, and, to my knowledge, never saw the light of day on a black jersey. You can find examples of Roberto Alomar wearing it on a ROAD jersey, however. There are examples of that script on retail jerseys to be found, but I've never seen it on a gamer.
2) The "8" on the front of the jersey is wrong...too square for an Orioles 8.
3) Peter Angelos ordered all piping removed from these jerseys as he thought them "too gaudy." The examples you find with piping are issued, not worn.
4) I can recall seeing the Orioles wear their black BP tops in a game or two in 1995, especially after Erickson came over, but cannot recall the black gamers ever being worn in a game.
5) Here's an example of an Orioles issued not worn 1995 gamer:

[kingjammy24]

1) Bigtime: I've posted a pic below of the Orioles 1995 BP, Road, and Home jerseys. I can't see a difference in the script from the Universal Rarities jersey. Can you point out the differences?



2) I agree; the '8' is slightly too square. Mostly the inside circles of the '8'

3) I have photo evidence that in 1996 and 1997 the Orioles wore black Alternates with sleeve piping only. (In 1997, they added the Jackie Robinson patch to the black Alternates). I can't find a single image of them wearing Alternates in 1995. I do have photo evidence of them in 1995 wearing 2-button BP-type black jerseys with no piping anywhere.

Does anyone have any pic at all of an Oriole in 1995 wearing an Alternate jersey with any piping?

Rudy.

[kingjammy24]

Well this is interesting.....Kim Stigall's website (www.ballparkheroes.net)
shows 4 black Alternate Orioles jerseys. Each one is the 1996-style with sleeve-only piping and no sleeve patches. Kim's descriptions say they are tagged as 1995 but worn in 1996. I have photo-evidence showing this style was worn in 1996. For one of the jerseys in particular, Snider #54, Kim says it was worn in 1995 and 1996. (So apparently he sold 2 different styles of Orioles black Alternates which he said were worn in 1995?). How many black alternates can you have in 1 year? A 2-button BP-type black alternate, a sleeve-only piping alternate, and a neck-&-sleeve piping alternate? Unlikely.
Secondly why are the 1996-style jerseys tagged as 1995's and worn in 1996? I've searched through a copious amount of 1996 baseball cards (baseball cards typically use photos from the previous year) and still could not find a single image of an Oriole wearing the UR-style/neck-&-sleeve piping jersey.
I'm starting to believe that Bigtime is correct in saying that these jerseys were made up but not worn. I'm unsure why there are 2 different styles of black Alternates out there with 1995 tagging though.


Rudy.

[ripkengamers]

Jim even the flag tags on the UR jersey is different than yours.