can someone please tell me, conclusively,
what year did rawlings change their
manufacturer tag from the all red tag
seen prior to 1988 to the all white tag
seen thoughout most of the 90's?
i'm a little confused because i've found
some 1988 rawlings jerseys which show the
all-red tag and some 1988 jerseys showing
the all-white tag so i'm unsure when the
all-white tags "officially" came into issue.
Rudy-
When Rawlings become the official supplier to MLB in 1987, they incorporated still used a red tag. 1987 saw the introduction of the all white tag.
Mike: as 1988 was the year that Rawlings began
putting the white manufacturer tag on their jerseys,
I would think that any 1988-year/set tagged jersey with
a red Rawlings manufactuer tag would either be a jersey from 1987 with 1988 year/set tagging or a fake.
While I would agree that 1988 is a transition year for the Rawlings tag, I would not be so quick to dismiss an overlap of a year out of hand. The manufactuers tag represents only one aspect of what should be considered. I think folks also look at Wilson and 1973 and 1978 as transition years as well..Those are also dates that I recognize. I recently picked up a 1974 Rangers road (common player) tagged "74" with the commonly accepted 1967-73 Wilson tag.
What I tell folks to be concerend with is when these anomolies show up in star player jerseys (once again, not an automatic disqualifer for me) and the gap is often more than just a year or two... I become a bit more concerned.
Consider the totality of the item and buy what you are comfortable with..
