About this "Reference Guide on CD"

I have been collecting game worn uniforms for almost thirty years, with the casual goal of finding “one of every style” for every team since the Double Knit Era began back at the start of the 1970s. Over the years I amassed a huge quantity of photographs and notes to myself that I kept in a dog eared notebook and flexible files in my drawers. When going to shows or seeing items advertised for sale, I’d check my files to see if what was being offered looked authentic. If I didn’t buy it, I’d often take pictures anyway, just to have for the future. Since I started collecting in 1979, I have amassed a collection of about 650 authentic jerseys, about half of them game worn.

The hobby has changed incredibly in recent years. Now, with the Internet available to everyone, dealers and private collectors are buying and selling MLB memorabilia in ways that would have been unimaginable to us in the mid- 90’s. Back then, you had to “know somebody” to find a game worn uniform. Today, buying one is just a mouse click away on eBay.

The problem is, not all of these jerseys being sold are truly authentic. Some are outright fabrications, being sold by people trying to separate enthusiasts from their hard earned money. Others are being sold by dealers who may have no real idea that an item they are offering for sale is not authentic, as they may have bought it themselves believing in its authenticity.

People often ask me “How can I tell if it is authentic?” It’s often a difficult question to answer, because sometimes it is impossible to be completely sure. But relying on my hundreds of pages of notes there are many clues that can tell a collector if an item he is about to buy is NOT authentic. A convincing “Letter of Authenticity” can also be fabricated, by anyone with a devious mind and a dollar to spend at Kinko's.

I compiled the first edition of this massive guide after many fellow collectors asked me for copies of my notes and research. The “first edition” of this guide was made for friends. Now, in this Fourth Edition, I have completely rewritten the entire book, researching and collecting thousands more period photographs and comparing them to items in private collections and offered for sale through dealers and private individuals.

I am a member of SABR- the Society for American Baseball Research. I compiled this guide as a service of sorts for other collectors. This work was never intended for wide distribution, and was not commissioned or licensed by Major League Baseball.

So What's In It?

MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era (1970-2007) is divided into 35 on-screen chapters, and is fully indexed to make finding things easy. 

• One chapter for each of the 30 teams (plus one for the Montreal Expos) in the Major Leagues, covering every variation of game jersey, alternate jersey and Batting Practice (BP) Jersey worn by the team since the start of the 1970s. It shows trim changes, whether names on back are used, if nameplates are used, what patches are on the sleeves, who the official manufacturer was for the team for most years, the colors of the lettering and examples of representative team tagging.
• A chapter detailing what to look for when collecting; tips to spot a fake, a fabrication or a recreation.
• A chapter dedicated to all the sleeve patches worn by the teams, for Post-Season Play, All Star Games and MLB Anniversaries and MLB Memorials.
• A chapter showing how to read manufacturer tagging to learn exactly in what date-range a jersey was manufactured.
• A chapter highlighting and showing examples of all of the many dozens of variations of typestyles used for player numbers and names during the Double Knit Era.

What's New in the Fourth Edition

If you have an earlier version of this Reference, you’ll want to upgrade.  This is not a minor update, as over one thousand hours of additional research has gone into this rewrite. Since the Third Edition (2005) the following changes have been made:

• Annual coverage for all teams now goes through 2007.
• For the first time, nearly full coverage of TEAM TAGGING is provided, showing the team markings that are sewn into each years’ authentic, team issued jerseys.  We’ll also show if there are jerseys are not tagged by the team.  Hundreds of photos of team tagging have been added as illustrations.
• Over a thousand new photographs have been incorporated into this new edition.
• For each team that migrated from flannels to knits in the early 1970’s, we will show what their last flannels looked like before the changeover, and cover the changes in trim and lettering that accompanied the switch to double-knits.
• Many additional facts have been added, and some corrections and clarifications have been made from the last edition.  Nearly every page of the Reference has been changed in some way, and many have been totally rewritten with new, updated information
• I have replaced nearly all of the photos depicting replicas or store bought jerseys that were included in the last edition, as I’ve searched out original jerseys for almost every team and every style.
• By talking with many dedicated collectors, I have been able to eliminate a few pictures of jerseys and their tagging that may not have been authentic, replacing these images with more accurate ones.
• Added a section on manufacturers’ tagging so as to help the hobbyist determine the approximate year of a jersey’s manufacture.
• Updated the chapter on “is it really game worn?” by adding much new information, including a section on jersey photo matching with examples.

How it is Delivered

MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era is delivered in a single, large Adobe Acrobat “PDF” file.  PDF is a very common file format that is readable by both Windows and Mac computers.  The file is fully indexed to make finding things within it easy.

MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era  (1970-2007) can be obtained two ways:

1. On CD-R, mailed to you by US Postal Service Priority Mail
2. As a downloadable file, available immediately from the ordering screen of this site.

MLB Game Worn Jerseys of the Double-Knit Era (1970-2007) is not available in printed book form at this time. As it contains over 1000 pages of color photographs, offering printed copies would be prohibitively expensive. However, you are welcome to print your own copy if you desire, from the PDF file you’ll receive. It’s possible to do.