I followed with interest the recent thread(s) regarding the Jackie Robinson patch issue on Steiner Yankee jerseys.

I have a couple of ideas regarding why certain 1997-tagged Steiner Yankees jerseys, which should have the JR patch, do not show evidence of ever having had this patch. (If a Steiner Yankees jersey shows evidence of the patch having been removed, then I think you can assume the jersey was used in 1997 as well as the following year; possibly by another player).

1) If Russell was responsible for sewing the JR patch: I wonder if the Yankees placed a few orders in 1997 for some 'spares/blanks' without the patch. The Yankees then received these 'spares' along with the JR-affixed jerseys and automatically added their '1997' year tagging to all of them. However, since they were spares and did not have the JR patch, they were not used in 1997. These jerseys were then used in 1998, leading to their exhibiting game use. In 1998, the Yankees did not have any patches or armbands as far as I know.

2) If the Yankees were responsible for sewing the JR patch on: I wonder if they received in their 1997 stock of jerseys, sewed 1997 year tagging on all of them, sewed the JR patch on a certain number, and as in the hypothesis above, they did not use the non-JR, '1997' tagged jerseys in 1997 and instead used them in 1998.

The conundrum to me is how a jersey is tagged '1997', exhibits good game use and yet has no evidence of the JR patch ever existing.

Last night I was on the Steiner website and saw what looked to be a great deal in their current auction - a 1994 Danny Tartabull game-used road jersey and pants set. Opening bid was $300. This uniform had also been on their last auction and failed to draw a single bid. I thought $300 for this set was a steal. Before I was about to bid, I noticed there was no "125 yr" patch. No mention of it.
Tartabull played for the Yankees in 1995 using the same #45 so maybe they removed it and he used the jersey in 1995 as well? I suppose it entirely rests on whether there is evidence of a patch once being on the sleeve. If there is, then it seems you're getting a jersey that Tartabull used for 2 seasons. An even bigger steal for $300. If there's no evidence of a patch ever existing, then ..??

I saw 2 more jerseys on their site - a 1997 Andy Pettite game-used road jersey ($7500) and a 1997 Kenny Rogers game-used road jersey. Neither of these have the Jackie Robinson patch and there is no mention of what happened to it.
Rogers played for Oakland in 1998 so either the patch was removed in order to re-use the jersey for Dale Sveum in 1998, the jersey never had the JR patch but was tagged as "Rogers 1997" and simply used by Sveum in 1998, or ..?? (The jersey doesn't look like it's got 2 seasons worth of wear).
Pettite played for the Yankees in 1997 and 1998 (and onwards) using #46 so if there was evidence of a patch being removed, you're most likely getting a jersey used very heavily by Pettite. If there's no evidence of a patch, then..??


Rudy.