Every Hall of Famer started out someplace. Sparky Anderson’s career of molding champions began in spring training with the Padres in 1969. Museum quality offering of a Hall of Fame manager and the earliest San Diego Padres major league jersey you could ever hope to acquire.
Player Attribution and Dating: The jersey is dated to 1969 by the chain stitched embroidery annotation of 1969 below the c 1967-1973 Wilson manufacturer’s tag in the left front tail. Unlike either of the two styles of road jerseys worn by the Padres in 1969 (Padres and San Diego fronts), this jersey does not feature the San Diego 200th Anniversary (Conquistador) patch on the left sleeve or signs that any patch was ever applied to the jersey. Additionally, this jersey is without any sort of supplemental player identification sewn into the collar or signs that any such identification was ever present.
Even common players for the Padres who were in spring training with the club, but did not eventually make the major league roster had jerseys ordered for them during spring training in preparation for the start of the season. I have one such example in my oh-hand exemplar library, that being of pitcher Fred Katawczick who wore #29 in spring training of 1969, yet the jersey prepared for him was #47. The #47 is original to the jersey and it shows no real signs of use or wear. The 1969 Street and Smith Yearbook shows that in spring training, Coach George “Sparky” Anderson wore #10. Anderson would later wear # 1 during the regular season. Period images of Anderson in spring training show him in the style of road jersey featuring PADRES and no 200th Anniversary Patch. The offered jersey is tagged and measures to be a size 42. Based on the knit jerseys evaluated for Anderson, I would expect to see a flannel in the size 40-42 range so the size appears to be appropriate.
Construction: The jersey is constructed of professional grade 4.5 oz flannel; sleeve cut is Raglan. All lettering and numbering is done in brown felt over yellow twill fabric. All of these materials are period team, manufacturer and period appropriate. The jersey compares very favorably with the above mentioned Padres exemplar in all respects, the exceptions being the Katawczick offering is the style that features the SAN DIEGO front and has supplemental player identification sewn onto a swatch that is affixed through only the first fold of the collar fabric.
Use and Wear: The jersey features signs of light wear as should be expected in a coach’s spring training jersey. The #10 has been restored using period numbers. This restoration was done with just enough of an off-set that you can see the stitch outline of the original #10. Use of a light table is not required to see this. There is also a 2 ¾ inch section of broken anchor stitching in the rear of the collar.
Opinion: This jersey possess all of the characteristics that I would expect to find in a Wilson manufactured San Diego Padres Road jersey issued to Coach George “Sparky” Anderson for use and wear during spring training 1969. The MEARS grading criteria for pre-1988 jerseys begins with a base grade of 10 and five categories for deductions. I found this reason to deduct points from this jersey:
Category 3: -2 Professional number restoration with vintage numbers.
Category 5: -1 Broken stitching in rear of the collar
As such the final grade for this 1969 Sparky Anderson San Diego Padres Spring Training Road Jersey with Cert # 311408 is A 7.
Dave Grob
MEARS
Enclosures: PLATES I-III