Rudy-
Call it creative at best!

The Phillies went to the World Series in 1983. Their 1983 jerseys had a large 100th anniversary patch on the sleeve.

You will find 1984 tagged Phillies jerseys in the hobby of Pete Rose, Tony Perez and Joe Morgan. These are team "ordered" and correctly tagged jerseys. The problem, however, is that these guys were not on the 1984 team. Several dealers have marketed these 1984 jerseys as 1983 "Post Season/World Series gamers". When asked, these folks have an amazing story about how the Phillies ordered post season jerseys, tagged with 1984 year tags. They did this so they could wear the jerseys in 1984. The problem, however, is that this is simply not true. First, the 1983 patch is much larger than the 1984. Why do these 1984 jerseys have the standard, smaller Phillies 1984 patch and there is no outline of the larger 1983 patch (if the 1984 jerseys had been worn in 1983 World Series, why do these Rose, Perez and Morgan jerseys not have the 1983 patch on them, or better yet, an outline of the larger 1983 patch?).

I have 1983 gamers of Joe Morgan, Schmidt, Rose and Carlton in my collection. All are tagged 83, and all have the large 1983 100th anniversary patch. All but the Morgan were obtained directly from my team contact, who obtained them directly after the 1983 World Series. So much for the 1984 tagging story!

As I always say, do your homework, folks.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net