this question has been mulling in my mind for awhile.
i would greatly appreciate any insight.
it began when i saw a "game used" toronto blue jays cap on ebay which was purported to have been game used by roberto alomar. it came with a COA from dave bushing which stated that 'according to their catalogue of exemplars, this cap appears to be game used by roberto alomar".
i couldn't help but think what exemplars?!.
when authenticating bats and jerseys, most people rely heavily upon differences which distinguish that piece from a retail piece. as far as i know, there is absolutely no difference from a new era pro baseball cap bought from a sporting goods store or one that was worn on the field.
someone please correct me if i'm wrong.
if there are no differences between retail newera caps and
team-used newera caps, then what exemplars do you have left?
the fact that this cap in question had a "#12" written
on the underside of the bill? is that it?
i see a good many dealers selling "game worn caps".
it's one thing if they obtained the caps from the teams or players directly. but if not, how on earth do you authenticate a baseball cap?
Of all items we authenticate, caps, batting gloves, cleats, fielding gloves, and other misc. items are the toughest. More are rejected than ok'd. Especially high profile players. There are no complete factory records of these for us to compare. But, what we do have is examples in our library of manufacturers and the correct era the item was issued to be worn, player uniform numbering styles, and player sizes. When analyzing all of these facts, we can render and opinion.
For example, when authenticating a cap, we must first determine if the manufacturer of the cap matches the correct manufacturer for that player during that period. After checking the manufacturer, the style has to be verified to determine if it is correct or not.
These are all manufacturer traits and this is the easier part to double check based on our database.
The difficulty comes in the player identifier. This usually comes in the simple process of adding a players number via a marker. This is the portion of the process where the authenticators experience comes into play. Both Dave Bushing and Dan Knoll have kept examples of game worn caps in the inventory. These caps show various signs of use. I do not have a copy of the artice handy, but Mike Heffner from Lelands wrote an article a while ago with some very useful tips to buying and collecting game worn caps. Maybe if you emailed him at Lelands he could provide you with a copy.
When a player wears a cap, the everyday affects of sweat, heat, dirt, and other enviromental forces begin to re-act with the marker and the fabric it appears on. The marker itself begins to react over time. This creates ghosting, fading, bleeding, edge fanning, etc. These are all signs of repeated game wear.
If a cap exhibits enough evidence of wear and the player identifier shows reaction, then we deem it as authentic.
But also, please keep in mind that even after all of the above steps, if there is no direct player/team or verifiable provenance, we can at best
attribute use to the examined player.
Our letters read to the effect, St. Louis Cardinals cap with use attriubted by Tommy Herr. The body of the letter would cover manufacturer, wear, and the manner the player identifier was applied and if it matched known authentic examples.
As always, first ask to read the complete letter and always feel free to contact me with additional questions.
My first guess would be that many players are known to write on the underside of the bill and inside the brim of a hat.
Players typically mark their hats with their number on the underside of the bill. I have seen hats that players marked with the names of their children, motivational sayings, etc.
My guess is that the hat is marked in a way in which Alomar is known to have marked his hats.
I remember once seeing an Alomar hat from his days with the Mets which had "God is with me" in spanish accompanied by a cross.
This doesn't answer how this particular hat might have been authenticated, but it could give an idea of how it would be possible to authenticate a hat.
I forgot to address one very important part of Rudy's original question.
Yes, in many instances, the cap players wore on the field was the same one made available to fans.
I would not be afraid to collect game worn caps. I have seen many great examples in auction and on ebay while gathering research data. Especially rare and colorful styles of common players. These are affordable examples of game worn equipment that can be found for less than $100.00
With the difficulty with caps, the repuation of the dealer is so important, and as always, educate yourself and ask a lot of questions.
Very nice example of a game worn cap judging from the photo provided. The special inscription is a very personal trait that adds to the authenticity of the cap.
Are there any other cap collectors out there, and if so, what do you look for regarding wear and authenticity when purchasing your caps?
let's assume for the purposes of our discussion that i'm
referring only to new era caps. these caps are easily obtained from almost any sporting good store in america.
troy:
- you mention that caps, batting gloves, cleats, and fielding gloves are the most difficult to authenticate.
i'd say that caps are far more difficult to authenticate than any of those because cleats, fielding gloves, and batting gloves all often have something that caps do not: unique 'pro only' identifiers, affixed by the manufacturers, that indicate they were not intended for retail sale. such identifiers often serve as very strong pieces of evidence that, at a mininum, the item came directly from the team or the manufacturer. this is a huge step in determining professional game use.
cleats: often there is manufacturer tagging inside of many cleats which indicates via words or codes that they were not sent to a retail store.
batting gloves: many of the specific models of batting gloves used by pros are simply not available for sale to the public. years ago, i tried to find the exact model of batting gloves used by manny ramirez for my own personal use. i could not find them in any store or even on the rawlings web site. additionally, nike and rawlings will often produce gloves in unique colors that are unavailable
to the public. lastly, many game used batting gloves have players names, numbers, or nicknames "professionally" affixed to them. if you look at barry bonds' batting gloves, franklin has printed "bonds" on the finger. i certainly can't find orange and black franklin gloves with "bonds" printed on the finger in any store.
fielding gloves: some fielding gloves have pro-only
tagging and/or codes. most also have players names sewn into them. elegantly sewing a name onto a baseball glove is not something most average people are able to do.
caps have no manufacturer-affixed, "pro team only"
identifiers.
given the lack of these identifiers, you mention that the 3 things you look for are:
1) manufacturer
2) player identifier ie: number written in marker
3) game use.
if we're talking about "game used caps" used in the past 11 yrs, the manufacturer is a non-issue as theres been only 1 manufacturer - new era.
so you're left with a marked number and game use. game use on a cap has got to be the easiest sort of game use to forge. far easier than bats, jerseys, and batting gloves.
wearing a cap for a month in august will put some nice sweat stains on the band and other than sweat stains, what other game use indicators are there for a hat?
so really, you're left with a number written in marker.
is it me or does that seem very inadequate? imagine if the only piece of evidence which distinguished a gameused bat from a retail bat was a number written in marker on the knob. not even a manufacturer carved number, but simply one scrawled in sharpie. even the most inept of us can easily scrawl a number in sharpie onto a brim in about 2 seconds.
it's difficult to believe that anyone would issue any sort of opinion regarding game use simply because roberto alomar wrote "#12" on his bill and the hat being examined also has a "#12" on the bill. it seems beyond inadequate.
i do agree that, sometimes, the player identifier is unique enough as to be able to lend great credibility.
let's face it though, most players simply write their number
in the exact same place: under the brim, centered, and closer to the headband. very few have such unique identifiers as the alomar hat that owen posted.
so if all you've got is a hat, identical to a retail hat,
that shows sweat in the band and a number written in marker that has slightly bled, you feel confident those 2 things
are "strong evidence" that the hat was used by that player in a majorleague game?
