Restoration: 1970s "Hiding In Plain Sight"

As I worked with collectors who were deeply knowledgeable in their one favorite team, I started to learn the secret of these missing artifacts: these missing styles had all been sent to the minor leagues, had been completely stripped of their MLB identification, and then were mostly used into oblivion then often discarded. On this page I have shown you some restorations I have done on these MLB to Minor League Baseball hand me downs, bringing them back to their original glory. I usually focus on other people’s treasures, but this one is mine.

I’ll admit a soft spot for the San Diego Padres. Struggling to find their identity in their first years of existence in the early 1970s, the team changed their uniforms almost every year. They introduced screaming gold, uncommon brown, and then added their own bright orange into the MLB color palate. The team had no money to waste, constantly flirting with insolvency in their early years. They had only four minor league clubs in their farm system, and these clubs were the grateful recipients of all the Padres’ MLB hand me down gear— everything from pants to bases and balls. (Pages from my book, The Game Worn Guide to MLB Jerseys 1970-2020” https://gamewornguides.com/)

For many years, my goal as a collector has been in trying to collect “one example of every jersey” each MLB team wore from 1972 to present. And the Padres were proving difficult. Search as I might, I could not find a single example of their 1974-1975 road gray jerseys. I had concluded that they simply did not exist any more.

Summer 2021, a friend contacted me and suggested I take a look at an auction on eBay. I can’t find all the auction photos now, as hard as I have looked, but I found this one. This jersey was simply listed for sale as a 1974 Alexandria Aces road jersey. “Could this be an elusive Padres 1974 road jersey?” He asked.

This grainy photo of the tagging was what I needed to see. Minor league teams generally did not year tag their jerseys, rather, the jerseys came to them already tagged from the MLB parent that had used them previously. This tagging nomenclature matches the 1974 Padres jerseys in my book.

This Wikipedia search told me what I needed to know: in 1975 (the next year) the Padres had a minor league team in Alexandria, Louisiana called The Aces. Without asking any questions of the seller, I bid on it hoping to win and eventually did.

When I received it, I could tell that the “12” on the front that remained in good condition, and the trashed number 12 on the back were original to the jersey. The Aces wordmark had been sewn on clearly after something had been removed from the front, but it was so worn that I could not make out details that let me confirm its origin.

Removing the front script, it became immediately evident: The word “San Diego” had indeed been on there before! The clearest evidence was the burned in glue imprint of the center letter “D” in “Diego” that had been right on the button placket. As is often the case, this is a spot where the thickness of the cloth and the heat and pressure from the original heat press was the greatest, thus leaving an indelible mark. If you look closely, you can see the "D" outline on the photo on the prior page as well.

Luckily, I already had a recreation of the Padres road script, scanned from a rare original I had restored and authenticated some months before, and overlaying the template onto the jersey on the light table, I could see several other places where the San Diego lettering had been originally stitched, some 46 years ago. (at right, my cutting proof. Every order that goes through the shop gets a proof, even mine, no exceptions.)

Searching the Padres Roster online, I was disappointed to learn that no roster-player wore #12 in 1974… but further research revealed that Jim Davenport, the former San Francisco Giants infielder, manager and fan favorite, had been a coach on the MLB Padres in 1974 and wore #12. Nicknamed “Peanut”, at 170 lbs., Jim’s diminutive stature was perfect for a size 40 jersey, and a search of other jerseys he had worn in his playing career proved that they were size 40s as well.

This jersey was filthy— as minor league jerseys often are. It was probably washed 200 times in a commercial machine along with 50 other filthy uniforms, and the dirt compounded into the fabric with each wash. A hand scrub, then a long soak in a bucket of warm soapy water (Woolite and OxiClean powder is my magic formula) and then a machine wash brightened the garment considerably. It was ready to reletter.

I cut and stitched a replacement San Diego wordmark. The original back numbers were truly awful, and I decided to replace them along with recreating a matching name on back for Davenport, in the Padres distinctive vertical arched style. The long name and the small jersey required some careful narrowing and tight spacing to make it fit.

Here is the final product, ready to display. (I certainly can’t wear it… I last fit into a size 40 shirt in 8th grade) . So— what is the message here? If you are looking for an illusive MLB jersey as I was, find out who the team’s minor league affiliates were in the years immediately following, and search for game worn examples of these. There are a lot of MLB jerseys out there waiting to be restored, hiding in plain sight. As a coda to the story, I was contacted by the other person who had been bidding against me to win the same jersey on eBay, and learned he was a historian for the Alexandria Aces, and he had wanted the jersey for display in their archives.After telling him of my intent, I promised him I would take the removed lettering from the jersey and make him a reproduction 1975 Aces jersey for the museum. And I will do that. On to the next project!

Restoration / Authentication

1970s "Hiding In Plain Sight"

Restoration: 1976 "Diamond in the Rough"

Authentication: 1951 Jackie Robinson