Do Players Change Helmets For the start of the Playoffs?

[panthrotc]

I just won the McGwire helmet in Grey Flannel Auction. It says in the title
"1992 Mark McGwire Oakland Athletics Game-Used ALCS Batting Helmet (A’s LOA)"

I havnt gotten the item yet as it is in the process being shipped out. I have not read the A's COA yet. But I was wondering was it common practice for players in the early 90's to change Batting Helmets for the start of the playoffs? The use on the helmet looks pretty heavy. The a's last regular season game in 92 was Oct 4, and the LCS started Oct. 7. Granted McGwire had his best year since 87 that hitting 42 Homeruns, maybe out of superstition he would not change helmets? thats what im hoping, but I wanted to know if anyone here had heard of players changing helmets for the playoffs. Given the era and the kind of guy mcgwire was with his equipment, i can not see him changing helmets because of the playoffs. If anyone has any info or input please chime in. I basically have a bunch of long hours to kill as i await it's arrival. I have to read the Coa and see what it says obviously. In the 92 LCS McGwire played in 6 games, had 20 at bats and hit 1 HR. From the pictures it looks like this helmet saw more then 20 at bats, making my assumption soley based on the pictures that this was not just used for the ALCS. I have 2 pictures that i think are possible photomatches that i will compare once i get it in my hands.

Here are the pics from the auction page

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/longball98/Helmet.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/longball98/mac.jpg
http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/longball98/macc.jpg

[panthrotc]

bump

[skipcarayislegend]

It depends on the player and the team. Your best bet, imo, is to concentrate on McGwire only and his at bats in '92. Some teams do issue new helmets and have for awhile, like the Braves for example going back to at least '91. It's ultimately the player's choice whether or not he wants to wear the new one. I have a couple '91 Braves helmets but neither was used in the post season.

I also happen to own an A's helmet that was used in three different World Series (1988-1990). The player obviously could've broken in a new one but didn't because he liked the feel of the old helmet. From the looks of yours, I'd guess that McGwire wore it in the regular season. Great helmet, btw! :)

[Lokee]

What worried me about this helmet is that the number on the back should be beside the ABC logo not above in the regular season.

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/50724429/Sports-Illustrated

Not sure how it was in the playoffs though

[panthrotc]

What worried me about this helmet is that the number on the back should be beside the ABC logo not above in the regular season.

http://www.gettyimages.com/detail/50724429/Sports-Illustrated

Not sure how it was in the playoffs though


the number isnt above. when i posted the pics i posted them on top of each other. the 3 pics from the item page were all seperate. when i posted them in this thread i put them on top of each other

[Lokee]

I understand BUT I don't think you understand. If you look at the 25 decal right below it is the start of another decal (not the american baseball cap 7 3/8) I understand. Just pointing this out as 2400.00 is alot to spend on something.

[panthrotc]

I understand BUT I don't think you understand. If you look at the 25 decal right below it is the start of another decal (not the american baseball cap 7 3/8) I understand. Just pointing this out as 2400.00 is alot to spend on something.


ahh , now i get it. Yea. I can see what your referring to. well, im just gonna have to wait till i get the item in hand. ill post pics. Fingers crossed. :confused:

[panthrotc]

I understand BUT I don't think you understand. If you look at the 25 decal right below it is the start of another decal (not the american baseball cap 7 3/8) I understand. Just pointing this out as 2400.00 is alot to spend on something.


i checked out some 93 baseball cards. Since they use pictures from the previous season, i found pictures of mcgwire using a different style helmet for some away games. On some of the away games he used a helmet that also had a green brim. making the entire helmet green. So i think its safe to assume he used both yellow brim Home style helmets and the full green helmets thats season. The picture you posted did have him using the complete green helmet. So maybe the sticket placing of the decals was different for both styles. Ill take full pictures of the helmet and post them when i get the helmet in hand.

[whatupyos]

i checked out some 93 baseball cards. Since they use pictures from the previous season, i found pictures of mcgwire using a different style helmet for some away games. On some of the away games he used a helmet that also had a green brim. making the entire helmet green. So i think its safe to assume he used both yellow brim Home style helmets and the full green helmets thats season. The picture you posted did have him using the complete green helmet. So maybe the sticket placing of the decals was different for both styles. Ill take full pictures of the helmet and post them when i get the helmet in hand.



I don't know if I'm misunderstanding your above quote but the full green helmets with green brim didn't come into play until 1993. Anyway, what was the outcome of your helmet? You never posted pictures. Was it what you thought it was. I had real concerns about this helmet but you don't have an email that I can find to discuss.

[panthrotc]

I don't know if I'm misunderstanding your above quote but the full green helmets with green brim didn't come into play until 1993. Anyway, what was the outcome of your helmet? You never posted pictures. Was it what you thought it was. I had real concerns about this helmet but you don't have an email that I can find to discuss.


i got the helmet in the mail, alot of good use on it. I ended up getting McGwire to sign the helmet a couple weeks later when came into town to play the philles. The autograph was not his full signature and didnt come out the way i would have liked. Soi then decided to consign it to an auction in hoping to put the money towards a future mcgwire purchase that im working on.

[LastingsMilledge85]

Depends on the player like Hanley Ramirez I don't think ever changes his helmet throughout the season. You will notice that post-All-Star break his helmet has the ASG sticker on the back for the rest of the season.

[whatupyos]

i got the helmet in the mail, alot of good use on it. I ended up getting McGwire to sign the helmet a couple weeks later when came into town to play the philles. The autograph was not his full signature and didnt come out the way i would have liked. Soi then decided to consign it to an auction in hoping to put the money towards a future mcgwire purchase that im working on.


You might want to do your homework on the helmet. The stickers don't match up from photo examples.

[whatupyos]

I still can't figure out why, you being the big McGwire fan and all, that you'd consign your helmet to American Memorabilia because of a signature you don't like. I'd never sell anything of Mac's. Thats my loyalty as a fan. You were soooooo excited to win this from Grey Flannel yet flip it within a few months. Something isn't right.......

[whatupyos]

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=57163&c=Baseball%20Game-Used%20Caps,%20Batting%20Helmets&t=Closed&p=90&s=


Damn, homie. You took a hit on this!! Good luck getting your payment from them too. Thats close to a $2,000 hit!!! I still can't figure out why, you being such a huge fan and all that you sold this helmet.......:rolleyes:

[yanks12025]

I think it was sold because there was a chance it was not good.

[longball]

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=57163&c=Baseball%20Game-Used%20Caps,%20Batting%20Helmets&t=Closed&p=90&s=


Damn, homie. You took a hit on this!! Good luck getting your payment from them too. Thats close to a $2,000 hit!!! I still can't figure out why, you being such a huge fan and all that you sold this helmet.......:rolleyes:

Aaron-

What's not to understand?

Read his earlier post-he did not like the way MAC signed it on the bill. Makes good sense-the buyer not only had one of the rarest MAC helmets with a team LOA from the equipment manager, but you are also lucky enough to meet your favorite player and have him sign this. Based on this, why would a huge MAC collector even think about keeping this rarity?

Maybe the simple fact that not a single photo from the ALCS or the regular season could be found showing this helmet. Was this the real reason he dumped it just weeks after purchasing it for a wicked loss?

Another winner attracted to this site!

Go figure!

[Lokee]

Helmet is bad in my opinion. Apparently others felt the same way :rolleyes:

[ironmanfan]

Even IF the blues were worn in 1989, Menke was with the Phillies all season (and the next). It seems doubtful that the team would grab the jersey of someone currently employed by the team and reissue it, name changed, to a newcomer in midseason.

Howard, if you're reading this, email me and chime in with whatever you can offer.

Dave Miedema

Is Howard banned from the site or does he choose just not to post?

[BostonSportsFan]

Is Howard banned from the site or does he choose just not to post?


Having known Howard for the better part of 25 plus years, I spoke with him earlier this week about some Phillies jersey's. Howard informed me that he and Rudy who I believe used to post on this forum as well, worked on extensive research on an issue concerning another forum member Panthrotc who it appears dumped what was reportedly a Mark McGwire A's helmet over at AMI once it was obvious that it was not what it was reported to be. According to Howard himself, he had refused for the better part of a year to take part in this forum as he did not want to contribute to its success based upon the direction that ownership had taken it.

Howard came back for a one time only post on this A's McGwire helmet approximately 2 weeks ago and posted a rather interesting disection according to what I saw from his and Rudy's research on this questionable helmet. According to Howard, the post was removed within ten minutes and he then received a message stating he was banned when he tried to log back in.

Can any forum moderator please explain why this research that Howard and Rudy put together over a very serious issue of what appears to be a blatant attempt at a cover up of a piece of memorabilia was removed from the forum once posted?

I am under the understanding that this forum exists to uncover unscrupulious activity in this industry. After seeing the information put together by both Howard and Rudy, unless the forum member that is being questioned has a very, very good explanation, this was simply nothing but a dump of an item once it was discovered it was garbage.

It would be nice to know why valuable information about a bad item being passed through the hobby was removed. I have no idea why Howard was banned and that is not necessarily my concern. I am concerned as to why this other information was pulled.

Joe

[trsent]

I may not have always seen eye to eye with Howard and Rudy, but they helped uncover some serious concerns in the industry that should be applauded and rewarded.

[TNTtoys]

Since I brought up the topic (before it morphed into something else), I thought I'd respond. While I have no issue with Howard, and have been in touch with him from time to time (even in the past month), he and the owner of this forum have had their differences, and whatever transpired between them to either lead to him not posting or being banned is between them.

Since Rudy's name was brought up, I also thought I'd comment. I have absolutely no idea why he stopped frequenting this forum. I and several others here truly miss his contributions, as we collectively have learned lots from him and enjoyed reading his informative posts. If he and other admins of this forum had some type of "falling-out", I am certainly not aware.

[ironmanfan]

sounds as if the information that Howard had on that bad McGwire helmet would benefit the entire GU community......why would that kind of helpful information be removed?

also disappointed to learn that a member here would dump a bad item back into circulation

[BostonSportsFan]

Since I brought up the topic (before it morphed into something else), I thought I'd respond. While I have no issue with Howard, and have been in touch with him from time to time (even in the past month), he and the owner of this forum have had their differences, and whatever transpired between them to either lead to him not posting or being banned is between them.

Since Rudy's name was brought up, I also thought I'd comment. I have absolutely no idea why he stopped frequenting this forum. I and several others here truly miss his contributions, as we collectively have learned lots from him and enjoyed reading his informative posts. If he and other admins of this forum had some type of "falling-out", I am certainly not aware.


TNT Toys, it appears that you are a moderator on this forum? To second what IronManFan said, why was that post by Howard Wolf removed? Since Howard was able to post it, obviously he was not banned. If what he sent to me in email form was what he posted, and he stated to me that it was exact, then there was nothing in there that was a personal attack or a violation of forum rules that I could see. In fact, it was a point by point reference and fact driven post that carved up this helmet and what appears to be a blatant attempt to dump bad material once it was discovered to be bad.

From your above post, are you stating that the owner of this forum has some personal vendetta again Howard Wolf that he has placed front and center and he would rather not see Howard Wolf's name here so he is willing to remove valid hobby related information that I would deem as pertinent to cleaning up the bad material that circulates in the hobby rather than see it posted by Howard?

I do not have any information as to why Howard Wolf was banned and again, I don't personally care however what you are saying seems to indicate that the owner of the forum banned this member and removed a very valid post due to some issues he had with the member. Seems like bad business practice to me. If there was some legit reason to ban Howard so be it and that is for the ownership to decide but why allow your own agenda to get in the way of very valuable information being posted on a legit issue of what would appear to be hobby deception?

I have known Howard for again over 25 years and he is among the most knowledgable collectors I have ever come across. It seems a shame to me that he is not on here sharing his vast wealth of knowledge. He told me he used to participate on here quite regularly but has not been involved for some time.

I do not know Rudy personally and will not speculate on why he has choosen not to post however I am sure that one could also make an educated guess on that issue as well. If it has anything to do with my conversations with Howard Wolf and what he indicated to me about the Game Used Forum it is no wonder that Rudy and or others do not post here.

Joe

Joe

[Lokee]

is this the helmet in question ?

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=34656&page=2&highlight=Mark+McGwire+helmet

[nickacs]

sounds as if the information that Howard had on that bad McGwire helmet would benefit the entire GU community......why would that kind of helpful information be removed?


AGREE 100%. I don't know why (or even care) that Howard was banned long ago, but being a very respected memorabilia "inspector", let's say, if the information benefits the community, why not let the post stay???
Isn't that what this forum is about in the first place? Collectors helping each other out? I know I've found so much valuable information from fellow members, shoot I would've been dupped on so much fake auction crap I'd be out thousands of dollars over the last 3 years.

Oh well, that's my 2cents, but obviously there's more to this Howard/GUU forum issue than the "regular" members know about... too bad :(

[TNTtoys]

TNT Toys, it appears that you are a moderator on this forum?

From your above post, are you stating that the owner of this forum has some personal vendetta again Howard Wolf

Joe

Joe,

Yes, I am a forum moderator, and... I mentioned that

<<whatever transpired between them to either lead to him not posting or being banned>>

meaning that I clearly don't know what transpired. I don't know if Howard stopped posting or if he was banned. Could I have been any clearer that I don't have a clue as to what the full story is?

Vendetta? please tell me that you are you kidding?

Nick

[BostonSportsFan]

Joe,

Yes, I am a forum moderator, and... I mentioned that

<<whatever transpired between them to either lead to him not posting or being banned>>

meaning that I clearly don't know what transpired. I don't know if Howard stopped posting or if he was banned. Could I have been any clearer that I don't have a clue as to what the full story is?

Vendetta? please tell me that you are you kidding?

Nick


Nick, I do not know either what the real truth is. All I know is that Howard told me that he posted verbatim what he sent to me in an email after we were talking about various collections and the hobby. He then told me the post disappeared 10 minutes later and when he tried to log back in he was banned. I have no reason to doubt Howard as I mentioned I have known him for nearly 30 years.

How exactly would you explain that? Again, unless there is something I am missing why would the post be removed even if there was some valid cause to ban Howard? I asked Howard if it was standard practice as I am not a long term forum member to ban a member and then remove their post. He told me in his experience that even if and when a forum member did something to be banned the post would not then be removed unless it was a complete personal attack or profanity laced tirade. At least based on the email he sent me, his and Rudy's homework were neither.

I do not know the owners here but I do know Howard Wolf. If you don't know anything more no problem, but how do you explain why a valuable thread was removed that had very solid fact based information on a potential piece of memorabilia being dumped on other unsuspecting collectors via a very questionable auction house when you yourself stated that there is some history between Howard and the forum owners.

I have been involved in this hobby for over 35 years and having seen what I have seen with the petty attacks, selfish behavior, personal backstabbing, lying, cheating, deceit and everything in between would anything surprise me, absolutely not. This hobby can be a very dirty business but at least in my experience Howard Wolf has been one of the good guys and someone I would not hesitate to do business with time and time again. From what Howard told me about Rudy and from some of his posts I have read, Rudy seems to be as good as they come in this business as well.

Just my 2 cents on this for whatever it is worth.

Joe

[CollectGU]

I may not have always seen eye to eye with Howard and Rudy, but they helped uncover some serious concerns in the industry that should be applauded and rewarded.

Quite frankly, many of the forum members who posted valuable information are long gone and replaced with the always entertaining "how much will this pujols go for!" thread and "help me photo match my sin shoo choo bat" and the very popular "advise on whether I should bet my jersey signed" thread.......

Dave

[yanks12025]

Boston,
Can you just paste what Howard wrote to you in the email to here, so we can see it. Sad in what happened to this forum.

[otismalibu]

He then told me the post disappeared 10 minutes later and when he tried to log back in he was banned. I have no reason to doubt Howard as I mentioned I have known him for nearly 30 years.

He did indeed have a post on here - I read it. I was surprised to see him posting again. I dropped him an email and before I was finished typing the email, his post was gonzo.

I only read through it once, but it didn't seem like much of an attack to me. Hell, I've torched Joel worse than that :) And I paid a terrible price, as Joel's Blackhawks defeated my Flyers in the SCF courtesy one of the softest goals ever allowed. *SMH*

[TNTtoys]

http://www.americanmemorabilia.com/Auction_Item.asp?Auction_ID=57163&c=Baseball%20Game-Used%20Caps,%20Batting%20Helmets&t=Closed&p=90&s=


Damn, homie. You took a hit on this!! Good luck getting your payment from them too. Thats close to a $2,000 hit!!! I still can't figure out why, you being such a huge fan and all that you sold this helmet.......:rolleyes:

All,

I was emailed off the forum with reference to the following thread:

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_forum/showthread.php?t=42066

I posted the link because I believe that it's 100% relevant to the existing discussion of the McGwire helmet.

Nick

[karamaxjoe]

Quite frankly, many of the forum members who posted valuable information are long gone and replaced with the always entertaining "how much will this pujols go for!" thread and "help me photo match my sin shoo choo bat" and the very popular "advise on whether I should bet my jersey signed" thread.......

Dave

Sad, but very very true. We used to have daily informative posts, but completley lost all that when the forum cleaned house.

[ChrisCavalier]

Hello Everyone,

Let me address a few comments on this thread so that people don't have to speculate on things of which they are not aware.

We have made it very clear that everyone's participation in the forum is predicated on their observance of the forum rules which can be found here:

http://www.gameuseduniverse.com/vb_f...hread.php?t=99

When those rules are repeatedly violated, we reserve the right to ban any member we deem appropriate. While I am not interested in getting into the specific details here, Howard Wolf was banned for violating the forum rules. We have deleted posts in the system as well as personal emails I have received that are the basis for the banning.

Contrary to the speculation in this thread, I have no personal vendetta against Howard. In fact, from the deleted posts and the emails I have received it appears more likely the opposite is true. Again, I am not interested in getting into details but I will simply say we reserve the right to ban members when repeated rule violations occur. To be very candid, we have probably allowed too many violations before acting in the past (that’s because we don't like to ban members unless we have to) but we will act as we see fit going forward in order to maintain a positive environment on the forum. Once a member is banned, they have lost their right to post on the forum, period. There are no "it's okay to post some things if you are banned". If they wish, banned members can send information to the moderators at any time and we will determine if it is appropriate to post the information and the manner in which it might be posted.

Since you are collectors, I understand your statements that you don't care what occurs between members and administrators. However, the administrative actions taken by the moderators of a forum are a reality of any online community. To be very candid, I have personally been accused of things because of what other people post on the forum and I have had to numerous times where I had to spend my personal time dealing with threats of legal action for things posted on the forum. Ironically, this is part of what we encounter for providing a free service to members so we can help collectors in the hobby.

We have gone even further in contacting people before they register to prevent troublemakers from having easy access to the forum. We do this with our own time for the sake of the community and we still do not charge people for the use of the forum. To be honest, I can't think of any other place in the hobby that has helped the collector as much as we have. With that said, I know there will always be some who think they can do things better and will always complain about something.

The fact of the matter is, we run the forum the way we think it should be run and we have created the rules to establish and maintain a positive environment for those who participate. We moderate the forum and screen potential members and do not charge members anything to be part of the community. As such, we will take administrative action when we deem it appropriate. Those wishing to be part of the community are more than welcome. However, if you are going to partake please be aware that it will require your adherence to the forum rules and the understanding that the administrators will take action on things they feel are necessary.

If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me directly at chris@gameuseduniverse.com.

Sincerely,
Chris