Spring Premier Auction 2015

Here then is a jersey with all the earmarks of hobby royalty: a game-worn road jersey from the epic 1998 season when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa thrilled the nation with the most exciting home run contest imaginable. Coming only a handful of years after a dismal work stoppage had led to the cancellation of the World Series and left an armada of fans grumbling and disenchanted, the great Home Run Race of 1998 proved to be a welcome antidote for the turnstiles and the level of fan enthusiasm for their heroes. Initially envisioned as a challenge to Roger Maris' nearly four-decades-old record of 61 home runs in a single season, McGwire and Sosa both roared past the Great Rajah in early September, and the home runs kept coming. When the smoke cleared, McGwire had a total of 70 round tripper and Sosa a mere 66. With such historic lineage comes this superb game-worn road jersey. The appropriate Rawlings tagging appears on the inside of the left-front tail, along with a Size 52 flag tag and smaller "Set 1 1998" flag tag. The elegant chenille stitching on the Cardinals script and "Bat and Birds" logo is nothing short of sensational, with nary a glimmer of any fraying of any of the stitching, a pronouncement that applies equally to the No. 25 red tackle twill on black and "McGwire" in the same fashion on a grey nameplate. The historic shirt shows game use and is otherwise problem-free and without visible alteration of any description. Simply a stunning artifact from a key historical milestone in 20th century baseball.