Rudy-correct Tagging For A 1995 Clemens? [Archive]

kingjammy24

03-31-2006, 02:19 PM

One of these days, I hope to contact Rawlings, Russell, and Wilson and get their input on my primers. It would seem to be the only way to get a conclusive, authoritative verdict. At any rate, given what I know at this point in time, I believe the tag on that particular Clemens is one that was used in 1996 and not 1995. Want to see something interesting? Here's another 1995 Clemens that AMI offered in their last auction:
http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.aspAuction_ID=25822

Notice the Russell tag is different than the one on their current 1995 Clemens road jersey. In short, they auctioned off 2 1995 Clemens jerseys with different manufacturers tags and apparently that in and of itself apparently wasn't a red flag. Same year, same team, same player, different tags. (Oddly enough, the AMI 1995 Clemens road jersey is a size 50 with 2" extra length while his 1995 home jersey is a size 48 with no extra length).

All of the 1995 MLB Russell game jerseys I've seen have had 1995-style Russell tagging. Can anyone show a legit, 1995 gamer (preferably from a common player) with 1996 style tagging?

Other than the manufacturer's tag, I believe the AMI Clemens is tagged correctly for 1995. That is, 2 digit year, computer print out, on a paper tag.

Here's something that strikes me as a little odd about the AMI road Clemens though: (I'd appreciate if others could chime in and tell me if they concur or not and why). Look at the extra length, poly, and year tag. They're all very worn, aren't they? Especially the poly tag. It's been washed so many times that it's almost dissolved into loose, individual threads. Yet the Russell tag hardly has any puckering on it. That is, it appears to me like 3 tags are very worn yet the Russell tag doesn't show much wear. Conversely, take a look at the 1995 AMI home Clemens which I referenced above. The poly tag doesn't show nearly as much wear as the poly tag on the road Clemens, yet the Russell tag shows much more puckering. That is, the wear between the 2 tags on the home Clemens seems to be about equal. There's some puckering on the Russell tag and some wear on the poly tag. On the road Clemens, the 3 tags show a ton of wear yet the Russell tag shows very little. Am I offbase on that?

At any rate, while I could be totally wrong, my opinion remains the same as always: if you've seen hundreds of 1995 gamers with 1995-style tags and very few 1995 gamers with 1996-style tags, doesn't it just make sense to choose the 1995-style tag? Even if you take into account that anyone could be wrong, why would you ignore that sort overwhelming, empirical evidence? For kicks? Just because you enjoy having a jersey that always causes you to wonder?

Rudy.