One Year Styles
In 1992, me and my then six year old son spent hours and hours poring over Mark Okkonen’s book. Although I had already been researching and collecting Reds uniforms for some time by then, it was Okkonen’s book that launched my interest across the board in 20th century major league uniforms. One of things I latched onto quickly was “one year styles”. There are many ways to look at a one year style from a technical perspective. It could be a one year style based on a patch or small change like an alpha/numeric font style. It could be a one year team like the 1969 Pilots. But what I am talking about are the styles that were a radical departure from past years and completely vanished after one season.
My collection features a number of one year styles; some more dramatically different than others. This is both a function of what I like as well as necessity in building a research/reference library. With all that being said, last night’s Leland’s Auction was a big deal for me. I picked up the 1957 Cubs road jersey. Legendary Auctions offered a 1957 Dale Long on three separate occasions (Nov 1998, April 2004, and last in April 2006) and I missed it each time. I have known where it has been parked since the 2006, but just have not been able to pry it free. In hindsight based on pricing, I am glad he never accepted any of my previous offers.
The 1957 Cubs jersey has been high on my list for a number years and a number of reasons:
1. Very rare one year style.
2. National League road uniform that would have been worn at Crosley Field.
3. Rare occasion where the jersey features both the city name and team name.
Dave Grob
|