McGWIRE JERSEY?

[hblakewolf]

Forum readers-

Currently on Ebay, a 1998 McGwire road jersey from spring training:
http://cgi.ebay.com/Mark-McGwire-Aut...QQcmdZViewItem

The seller indicates that it is tagged set 1 1997, however, has the spring training patch worn in 1998. What's extremely interesting is that it has the small number under CARDINALS on front of the jersey. The Cardinals did not use this style jersey during spring training 1998.

Likewise, the photo of the LOA is so poor, you really can't make heads or tails of it.

Any thoughts from Jeff at Birdbats or another experienced Cardinals collector?

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

Always buying McGwire game worn equipment and especially seeking game worn pants from 1998

[Rboitano]

The photo of the back of the jersey appears to be a white home jersey, then when you look at the front its a grey road jersey. It looks like two different jerseys pictured. Thats what Cardinals COA's look like though. But the auction looks like it was from 2002 or 2003, its hard to see cause it is so blurry.

[TNTtoys]

I'm no expert when it comes to McGwire jerseys, but the size 54 strikes me as peculiar. I don't recall him being that size. I also would question the Cardinals wearing a road gray game jersey in spring training, as opposed to the red mesh BPs. The fact that the letter of authenticity is illegible doesn't help matters... nor does the "1" feedback rating of the seller.

[whatupyos]

I had emailed the seller about this jersey also because I was curious about it. I am not aware of McGwire ever wearing a size 54. Also, on photos I found from spring training they did wear white and gray jerseys in spring training, but not with the numbers on the front. When I asked the seller about any flag tags her didn't answer me, he just said that it was a size 54. Lastly, I emailed him about showing more pictures of the sleeves becasue the sleeves of the jersey don't appear to be long enough, becasue McGwire Cards jerseys appear to have longer sleeves and he has not responded. The email I sent was about 4 days ago I'm guessing. I'm worried about the low amount of feedback. The COA looks like it says 2005. Those are just my thoughts. I really have no idea.

Aaron

[Birdbats]

Howard,

You are correct that very little adds up regarding this jersey. It has the "birds on bat" logo that was used pre-1998, but the smaller numbers under the bat were not used until 1999. The Cardinals did not have uni numbers on the jersey front in 1997 or 1998.

Here are a couple of possibilities.

First, the Cardinals Care charity has a sordid history of mocking up jerseys for sale/auction. Even today, they'll strip down an older jersey of a bench player or coach, restore the letters/numbers of a current popular player, have the player sign it and auction it off. This is how you might end up with a 2002-tagged size 46 Rawlings jersey of Chris Carpenter. This could be one of those kinds of jerseys. As for the LOA, the kindest way I can put it is that the people who prepared those letters in the past weren't memorabilia experts. The jersey said "McGwire," it looked used and it had a 1998 spring training patch -- so it became a '98 spring gamer.

The second possibility is that this is a salesman's sample. The Cardinals changed their uni logo in 1998. The birds were made larger and had more detail. The beaks were red and the feet were black. The position of the birds' tails also changed to the front/back of the bat. I understand that several salesmen's samples were prepared with different logo variations, and that all of these jerseys had McGwire's 25 on them. Perhaps this is a sample where the only change from 1997 was the size of the numbers on the front.

Hope that helps.

[allstarsplus]

I have plenty of Mac sigs (from Steiner) and that sig looks real. The rest of it is sure odd with regards to the patch and #25 on front.

The size 52 is what Mac normally wore (with alterations), but the size anomaly could possibly be explained as it was a rush to get a jersey as it was a trade situation in 1997 hence the Set 1 1997 tagging, but then you can't logically explain the jersey number on the front as it almost counts out both 1997 and 1998 for use which then puts in question the patch too.

Mark got traded July 31, 1997 from the A's to the Cardinals so any '97 jersey is rare and this one doesn't add up.

Here is a Question/Answer someone posted on eBay.

Q: Your jersey is a fake, and you know it. The Cardinals didn't wear that style of jersey in spring training, and it looks nothing like a real gamer. You better pull it off eBay right now because I'm reporting it to them. Jan-07-07

A: The Jersey IS NOT FAKE! The Jersey was purchased from CARDINALS CARE. You don't know what your talking about. It won't be pulled off. So go ahead and report whatever you think you need to. Thanks

[Birdbats]

Here is a Question/Answer someone posted on eBay.

Q: Your jersey is a fake, and you know it. The Cardinals didn't wear that style of jersey in spring training, and it looks nothing like a real gamer. You better pull it off eBay right now because I'm reporting it to them. Jan-07-07

A: The Jersey IS NOT FAKE! The Jersey was purchased from CARDINALS CARE. You don't know what your talking about. It won't be pulled off. So go ahead and report whatever you think you need to. Thanks

That's sad that someone would make such a statement. Just because a jersey is questionable doesn't mean the seller knows it. After all, the guy has a letter from Cardinals Care and bought it from the charity directly -- he put his trust in that LOA. I'm sure he's acting in good faith and doesn't deserve the attack. But, I also hope he understands why people are questioning the jersey. All you have to do is search Getty to find images of McGwire in the spring of 1998.





If I had this jersey, I'd be contacting Cardinals Care, sharing the information regarding the jersey's problems and asking for an explanation. I'd think something could be worked out.

[allstarsplus]

If I had this jersey, I'd be contacting Cardinals Care, sharing the information regarding the jersey's problems and asking for an explanation. I'd think something could be worked out.

Jeff - That is a great suggestion for him to contact Cardinals Care. I have purchased many great items there and my only concern has been the slow shipping. That Chris Carpenter issue you eluded to is bizarre too so hopefully there is a good explanation with this Mac.

The pictures aren't too good and it would help seeing the tagging and reading the COA.

Andrew

[whatupyos]

I finally got a responce from the seller regarding the sleeves. He said he received help posting the pictures and his help has left the area so he'll see what he can do. I wanted to be fair since I had said that he hadn't responded and he eventually did, just took a little while, which is cool. I agree that he shouldn't be called out attempting to sell a fake jersey as I'm sure he is not aware of the issues that have come up with the jersey. When one purchases things, especially from a team, you place your trust that the item is what the LOA states. Hopefully we'll learn more about the history of this jersey.

Aaron