[Rob D.]

In a friend's collection is a Stanford Pottery Cleveland Indian whose uniform is a road gray rather than the standard white. I've seen the statue in person and can say with 100 percent certainty that the uniform was made to appear gray, as opposed to just being a color variation or "mistake."

Learning about variations like the "Kentucky" Pirate is awesome.

About 10 years ago I was contacted by someone who lived a stone's throw from where Stanford Pottery was once located. He said he had a "black" Indian, which he speculated someone at the factory made after Larry Doby joined the Indians. We spoke twice on the phone, and I must have asked a half-dozen times whether the skin color was below the glaze and not something that was added after the statue left the factory. He assured me it was original.

We made arrangements to meet, and I drove 2 hours to a Burger King off of I-71 in North Canton, Ohio. As I sat in the booth and he walked toward me holding the statue, I could tell from 15 feet away that the black paint on the statue had been hand painted onto the surface and wasn't part of the manufacturing process.

I broke the bad news to him, explained why he wasn't going to be experiencing a cash windfall, bought a few cheeseburgers and some fries for the ride home and left.