A Primer on Rawlings Tagging - 60's-00's

[Robert Sanders]

Just so people don't think I concoct those tagging primers while I'm inebriated, see the image below for numerous examples of 1988-89 style Rawlings tags all with a 1989 flag tag. While I admit I could always be wrong with the years, I do put a good amount of work into them and only decide on a year after I've seen an overwhelming amount of evidence.
I have seen less than 5 1990-91 style Rawlings tags with 1989 flag tags. They have always been on superstar jerseys - Schmidt, Griffey, Ripken, etc. The last one was on a Royals Bo Jackson jersey that sold for
over $1800. I've never seen one on a common player.

Rudy.

Just to make things a little more interesting, I happen to own a Gary Redus Pirates jersey tagged set 1, 1989 together with what is being called a 1990-1991 Rawlings tag. Is that enough to cause a rethink on when Rawlings changed their tags or should I assume that this common player jersey I own is not legit?

Robert

[kingjammy24]

hi robert,

given that my collecting niche focuses on jerseys from 1989-1993, i've seen many rawlings jerseys from this years. i have roughly 700 images of mlb gamers from 88-94 in my photo library. honestly, i'd have to say that approx. 98% of the rawlings jerseys in my photo library from 88-91 follow the primer. yours is the first common player i've ever heard of that's combined a 1990/91 tag with an '89 flag tag. it would seem to be the definition of an anomaly. it would be difficult to use your jersey against some 200+ others to re-write things. can you post some pics of your jersey?

the rawlings mismatches on those scoreboard jerseys are interesting. the mismatches don't occur on all of the scoreboard jerseys. the "2 90" canseco jerseys look fine. (in fact, there's one in the current lelands auction and the current VA auction). the bo jackson however is mismatched. it makes me wonder what's responsible for this mismatch. i mean if scoreboard could order strawberries and cansecos with consistant tagging then what went wrong with the bo jacksons and schmidts? one theory is that perhaps scoreboard ordered these on the cusp of the tagging style change. more specifically, the tagging changed in 1990 (from 1989). what if scoreboard ordered these around late 1989/early 1990 when the new rawlings tags were done but the new flag tags hadn't yet been made because it was too far ahead of the 1990 season? unaware that anyone would even notice a change, when rawlings received the scoreboard orders, they took some jerseys that had were manufactured with the new rawlings tags and simply applied the old 1989 flag tags on them. what i'm getting at is that mismatch may simply be a result of the orders being placed at a point where the new 1990 flag tags hadn't yet been made up but rawlings already had the new manufacturer's tags done. if you apply this theory to your redus, then there are 2 possibilities:

1) perhaps it was ordered as a promo jersey in the offseason for a charity or photoshoot and rawlings made it up according to the situation i described above.

2) it's a legit 1990 gamer but simply had an old 1989 flag tag applied at the factory by human error. i've got to think that mistakes happen everywhere and it isn't difficult to imagine that an old 1989 flag tag got mixed in accidentally. what i'm getting at here is that your jersey isn't a 1989, but rather a 1990 with an incorrect 1989 flag tag.

these 2 scenarios seem more likely to me than hundreds of gamers in my photo library being wrong.

rudy.

[sox83cubs84]

Another thing to be aware of on 2000-02 Rawlings jerseys: 3 players with the Texas Rangers, Alex Rodriguez, Pudge Rodriguez, and Rafael Palmiero, order sets of their own uniforms from Rawlings of these years to offer on the collecting market. Such jerseys are flag tagged SET 3, unique among all Rawlings knit gamers in MLB. Questions exist as to just how many of these were ordered and how many were actually worn.

Dave M.