How fake is this ebay auction?

[tribefan1313]

I found this jersey on Ebay http://www.ebay.com/itm/1990-GAME-WORN-CLEVELAND-INDIANS-JERSEY-46-/150971068123?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item232693aedb The name on the back is WICKLANDER. The jersey should be of WICKANDER I am not familiar with any WICKLANDER who played with the INDIANS. Google is not aware of one either. Any one care for an explanation? Are the Indians that bad at spelling?

[yanks12025]

I'm seen jerseys with the last name spelled wrong before, so doesn't mean it's 100% fake.

[joelsabi]

misspelled NOB is not as common as misspelled names on baseball cards but it does happen.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/multimedia/photo_gallery/1101/jersey.misspellings/content.1.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin


the Rawlings tag for 1990 is correct and seller does provide a baseball card of the player it's supposed to be with corresponding uniform number.a

I suggest asking the opinion of member dcgreg25. he may have come across this interesting rarity before.

[sox83cubs84]

I can't say for sure how much this was worn, but it's definitely a team-issued piece.

Among the misspelled names I've seen before:

1971 Astros road flannel Dave RBOERTS (Roberts)
1983 Padres road Steve GRAVEY (Garvey)
1986 White Sox H&R Jim FREGSOI (Fregosi)
Early 1980's A's gold Ron SCHUELLER (Schueler)

It's rare, but it happens.

Dave Miedema

[yanks12025]

Dave,
I sent you a email the other day, just wanted to see if you received it. Thanks

[sox83cubs84]

Dave,
I sent you a email the other day, just wanted to see if you received it. Thanks

What was it about?

Dave M.

[yanks12025]

Athletics jersey

[jppopma]

The Indians may not be bad at spelling, but maybe the person working in the sew shop is.

I too have seen plenty of jerseys where the names are misspelled. As for the jersey, 46 is not a retail size, T would be for tapered which is usually a team customization, and he only pitched in 2 home games for them in 1990. Some may worry about the tagging being in the neck, but I'm pretty sure that the Indians were one of the few teams with tagging this way.

I'd be more skeptical of newer jerseys with misspelled names, as teams would be more apt to stash the misspelled jersey and just order a new one rather than make changes to the jersey. Indians, early 90's, I would expect them to be stretching jerseys and dollars pretty far.

Maybe nobody noticed, or maybe the team was not willing to make the change for him knowing he would not be around too long.

[dcgreg25]

I took a quick look at this jersey and the sizing, tagging, etc. appears correct. The font of the NOB looks off (more block/wider) and the nameplate looks like it could potentially be a different material. The Indians were notorious for recycling jerseys and Wickander was only with the Indians in April and May and did not return to the big leagues until 1992. Nobody else wore 53 between 1990 and 1992. My guess is the jersey was previously a Wickander jersey that had the nameplate removed and then later replaced either by the team or otherwise. Without seeing the jersey in person, I cannot say for certain.

[sox83cubs84]

As for the jersey, 46 is not a retail size, T would be for tapered which is usually a team customization, and he only pitched in 2 home games for them in 1990. Some may worry about the tagging being in the neck, but I'm pretty sure that the Indians were one of the few teams with tagging this way.

.

The 1987-91 Tribe gamers were all, indeed, collar tagged. The jersey also could have been used in 1993 spring training, as back then, Cleveland wore a previous season's uniforms in a given year's spring training games.

Dave Miedema

[012562]

Adding to the list of jerseys with names spelled wrong, I have a 2002 Angels jersey of Jeff DaVanon with the last name on the back spelled incorrectly as DaVannon.

Tom