The 1984 and 1985 Cleveland Indians didn’t have a lot going for them other than some cool uniforms featuring “Chief Wahoo” on the sleeve. The hapless inhabitants of the Cuyahoga would be featured a few years later as the setting for the baseball cult classic “Major League”. Offered for your consideration is a pair of Cleveland Indian's road jerseys originally purchased to support the MEARS on-hand exemplar reference library. These uniforms are now being made available to the collecting public since we have recently upgraded our exemplar of this style.
The 1984 Indians road jersey was worn by Benny Ayala. Not acquired by the Indians until 19 April 1985, the name on the back, while vintage, is a team replacement. Although the numeral 12 on the back is original, there is some broken anchor stitching where the white twill fabric is sewn over the red under-layer of the white over red numbering. All numbers however remain firmly affixed to the jersey.
The 1985 Indians road jersey (last year of this style) was worn by Vern Ruhle. The name is original to the back of the jersey. The rear numerals are original, but do feature a fairly significant amount of broken stitching on both the 4 and the 8.
At some point in time, both jerseys had name plates sewn over the current names to facilitate extended organizational use.
If you frequented an American League park in the mid-1980s and the Tribe was town, then you remember these all too well. Our suggestion is to buy the pair, keep the one you like best and swap the other as you build that collection of 1980s game used knits. Something that is getting harder and harder to do as time passes, so don’t pass on this opportunity.
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