Blue Jays expert needed

[TomTimmerman]

Hi,
I've got a DeWayne Wise Blue Jays jersey that I'm getting ready to put on the bay. It's tagged 1 00 2 in the neck and I bought it a couple of years ago from Wayne Otto (whom I believe bought straight from the team). Obvious question that never dawned on me before: The jersey number is 1, but baseball-almanac says Wise wore number 55 that year. It says Mickey Morandini wore #1. Using Getty, I did find two images of Mickey wearing number 1. I can't find many photos of Wise at all and none of him wearing number 1. Any ideas as to where this one may have come from? I do know that Mickey joined the team in August and played through September. Wise was not with the team in June, July, and August, but returned for September. I believe he got hurt and then went on a rehab assignment.

I was thinking one of the Blue Jays experts around here might have a media guide or two with some pictures that might shed some light.

Thanks,
Tom

[kingjammy24]

hi tom,

can you post pictures of your jersey? is it a home, road, alt?

it's a bit of a mystery. i believe the most likely explanation is that, as wise was signed by the jays in december, he indicated a desire to wear #1 early on. the jays then went and ordered his #1 jersey. for whatever reasons, he decided against #1 and chose #55. i've seen this once with a #45 frank viola jays jersey. viola wore #19 with the jays. i'm assuming that viola chose #45 in spring training, the jays had the jersey made up and viola then changed his mind and chose #19. your facts are correct; wise never wore #1. he wore #55.

from my jays spreadsheet here are the 2000 dewayne wise jerseys they had available:

Name Number Year Set Size Style
Wise, D. 55 00 1 46 Blue Alt.
Wise, D. 55 00 1 46 Grey
Wise, D. 55 00 2 46 Grey
Wise, D. 55 00 1 46 White
Wise, D. 55 00 2 46 White
Wise, D. 55 00 1 46 White Vest
Wise, D. 55 00 2 46 White Vest

as you can see, all #55. i have to think your #1 is a spring training anomaly that never saw regular season action.

rudy.

[TomTimmerman]

Rudy,
Thanks for the info. I'll try posting some pictures. I just checked and Wayne still has two of these on his site (home/road) with #1. I suppose I should ask him, but I was thinking someone on here might have more expertise about in-season changes, etc.http://www.baseballresearch.com/images/wisea.jpg
http://www.baseballresearch.com/images/wiseb.jpg

[TomTimmerman]

Also meant to mention. Some of the earliest Getty photos are portraits that don't show a uniform number. But, the caption reads "#55 DeWayne Wise" and they're dated Feb. 2000.

[kingjammy24]

hi tom,

a mystery indeed. personally, i think the only thing that can be said about your jersey is that it didn't see regular season action and, in one sense or another, was an error. perhaps majestic err'd in producing the wise batch?

i don't believe your wise jersey is doctored or "fake" in any way. i believe it was sent from majestic to the jays. either the jays sent an incorrect wise order to majestic, majestic made an incorrect order, and/or wise changed his mind after an order was already sent. i have to think that with majestic making hundreds of jerseys during the same time, an error or two occurs.

regarding in-season changes, the jays have told me that they typically didn't re-use jerseys from one player to another. if you'll notice, jays jerseys never used nameplates which would indicate they didn't strip names off jerseys in order to re-use them. i've also never seen a legit jays gamer that had evidence of a previous name or number. they have told me that they would use blanks from an earlier season or the same player might use their jersey from an earlier season. shawn smith has a 1990 spare-tagged todd stottlemyre with the 1991 all-star patch. for whatever reason, i believe in that case the equipment manager used a 1990 spare and made it up as a 1991 gamer. i've seen a few instances of them using blanks from earlier seasons. have also seen a 94 spare tagged parrish which was used in 1995. aside from all this, the jays have told me there was no yankees-esque re-use of gamers from one player to another.

rudy.

[TomTimmerman]

Thanks again Rudy. I also don't think anything "shady" is going on. I was kind of hoping to discover that Wise started the season as number 1. When he left during the summer and (the more experienced) Morandini joined the team, I thought Mickey might have "claimed" 1 and Wise took 55 when he returned in Sept. But the Getty photos from Feb kind of blew that idea. Oh well, I originally bought it because I thought it was cool to have a jersey that said "wise one" :)

Tom

[kylehess10]

I'm having a similiar problem right now. I just bought a Dewayne Wise game used 2006 bat and I got it in the mail today. On the end of the bat it has the length of the bat, the number 1, and another number that was marked out. I looked up the jersey numbers for the Reds this year and Wise wore #15.

[TomTimmerman]

Since this thread was bumped, thought I'd mention that I emailed Wayne at Pro-Am Sports (aka www.gamewornuniforms.com (http://www.gamewornuniforms.com)) about my jersey issue. No response and he's still listing two available on his website for $250.

http://www.gamewornuniforms.com/xcart/customer/search.php?substring=wise&in_category=

[kylehess10]

I forgot to mention in my other post that no player wore the number 1 in 2006.

[calgal]

I stumbled across your thread while doing a search on Wayne (World B) Otto. If I may, I would like to throw my two cents in even though it is not baseball related. I visited Waynes store in Boone in January. He sold me a pair of game used Eric Staal NHL Hockey gloves and after inspecting the gloves thoroughly and assuring me that they were indeed Eric Staals, he "gave me a deal" saying that if he sold them on line they would go for much more because Staal is so popular. A few weeks later, I had Eric Staal over to my home for dinner and gave him the gloves to autograph. Staal immediately knew that they were not his or had ever been his, or property of Carolina Hurricanes. He felt bad that I had been taken advantage of so he brought it up to his equipment manager who has helped me. Long story short, I have contacted Wayne Otto SEVERAL times about this and he has been less than helpful. He will not give me my money back and after speaking to other local memorabilia dealers, I have heard some not so great comments about his dishonest deals. Please be careful about purchasing from Wayne Otto/Pro-Am Sports in Boone, NC/Gameworn Uniforms on-line. He is not honest and will take advantage of anyone who doesn't know better.

[calgal]

I stumbled across your thread while doing a search on Wayne (World B) Otto. If I may, I would like to throw my two cents in even though it is not baseball related. I visited Waynes store in Boone in January. He sold me a pair of game used Eric Staal NHL Hockey gloves and after inspecting the gloves thoroughly and assuring me that they were indeed Eric Staals, he "gave me a deal" saying that if he sold them on line they would go for much more because Staal is so popular. A few weeks later, I had Eric Staal over to my home for dinner and gave him the gloves to autograph. Staal immediately knew that they were not his or had ever been his, or property of Carolina Hurricanes. He felt bad that I had been taken advantage of so he brought it up to his equipment manager who has helped me. Long story short, I have contacted Wayne Otto SEVERAL times about this and he has been less than helpful. He will not give me my money back and after speaking to other local memorabilia dealers, I have heard some not so great comments about his dishonest deals. Please be careful about purchasing from Wayne Otto/Pro-Am Sports in Boone, NC/Gameworn Uniforms on-line. He is not honest and will take advantage of anyone who doesn't know better.