after reading the "2001 Barry Bonds Jersey" thread i followed a link to mike quick's excellent website where he's listed what he considers to be fake bonds jerseys. a 1997 bonds shirt caught my eye because to my untrained eye it looked absurdly suspect yet it had been authenticated by mears.

according to the letter, the shirt was "style photo matched" and compared to "exemplars". as it turns out, the "examplars" the letter refers to is a single 1997 batting practice jersey in the mears database. as far as style photo matching is concerned, the letter references 4 getty images as follows: 270890 (front style match), 296642 (patch style match), 1785376 (nob - short cut style match) and 51537226 (nob - long cut style match).

the photo on the right shows getty image 270890 which the letter points to as a style photo match for the front of the jersey. on the left i've compared the shirt (above the red line) to a 1997 game photo of bonds. it appears that the shoulder seams do not match. further, it appears that bonds never wore a jersey in 1997 with the type of seams shown on the shirt in question. also i'm not sure how the use of getty image 270890 would reveal such a detail.




the photo on the left shows getty image 296642 which the letter points to as a style photo match for the sleeve patch. what can also be clearly seen in the getty image is that the russell "r" is not present below the patch - yet the "r" is present on the shirt in question. according to mike quick there is a very simple explanation - bonds didn't begin wearing russell shirts until the 2000 season. perhaps this explains why the shoulder seams do not match either. getty, which the letter obviously referenced, returns 83 photos of bonds from the 1997 season and none show an "r" on his sleeve. nor do photos from wire image and the like.




the top photo shows getty image 1785376 which the letter points to as a style photo match for the short cut nob. the bottom photo, which i also pulled from getty, shows bonds in the same game (same at bat i believe) - i think it's clear that the nob is not a short cut as the letter claims. further, i don't know how the letter could claim that getty image 1785376 supported a short cut nob.




the letter also states that the shirt is "properly tagged", the size (44) is "correct for the player", the shirt was "worn during the regular season" and that the "combination of characteristics compare very favorably to game photos".




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