Early 80's Seattle Mariners Jersey legit???
 

Hello, I hope this is the right forum for my questions. I picked up this Seattle Mariners Jim Presley jersey yesterday and a few things didn't seem to add up. I know this type of jersey was the M's road jersey from 1981-1984. The year tag on the bottom right of the jersey says 82 (1982). Presley's first year in the bigs was in 1984, he was a mid season call up. I didn't know if it was possibly a spring training jersey from 1982, but the I turned it inside out and noticed that there was the outline of the #43 on the inside. #43 was worn by Gene Nelson a middle reliever at the start of 1982, but then changed his number to 24 at some point during that year. My question is did teams recycle jerseys? My thought was maybe with the Mariners switching their uniforms for the 85 season they just used up what they had sitting around?? Could anyone chime in on this and add anything to it? Could it be game used also? Thanks a lot! Eric

To me, this jersey was originally Nelson's and then recycled later on.

But I'm also wondering if the NOB was removed and then it was later restored by someone that didn't do a very good job. I say that because of the lettering on the NOB.

I bought it and a few other jerseys from an older gentleman who had had it for over 20 years. The others jerseys are fine. I know this is the way he bought it. If someone else faked the name plate it was done many many years ago.

I don't mean faked it, just restored the NoB incorrectly.

From what I understand they would often send the jerseys down to the minors and reused. They had a blue bp top that they wore in spring training. As a Mariner fan, I would purchase to wear. I would have doubts that it was a gammer.

No worries. I didn't take it the wrong way. :) Thanks for your input though. I really don' t know a lot about game used items. These were my first jersey pick ups.

I'm with Nate on this one. This era was about the end of my uniform collecting but the "82" tag looks spot on (caveat, I'm not 100% sure about placement for M's jerseys). It would have been a 1982 M's season jersey, then likely recycled for a couple of years in the minors.

I will also agree that the name plate looks like a poor restoration job, not done by the team.

Basically you have a game used M's jersey with some issues. Still a nice piece to have if you are an M's fan.