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Variation on 1930s Yankees cap


Gothamite

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Saw this on the New York Daily News' site:

Gehrig's cap up for sale next month

During a 1939 visit to the Mayo Clinic, where he was diagnosed with the disease that would kill him, Lou Gehrig presented one of his doctors with a gift - a game-worn Yankees cap.

It was a typical gesture by the gracious Gehrig, "The Iron Horse" surrendering his wool cap to Dr. Paul O'Leary. The rare vintage hat with its familiar interlocking "NY" is now going on the auction block.

The cap, worn by Gehrig during his 2,130 consecutive-game streak, comes with a presale estimate of $125,000 - more than triple his top annual salary of $39,000 during his Yankees career.

The hat was most likely presented to O'Leary during the 1939 visit when Gehrig was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. O'Leary continued to treat Gehrig afterward, with the two exchanging letters about his condition.

"You don't need me to tell you that game-worn Gehrig items are extremely hard to come by, and we are proud to offer this relic from one of the all-time Yankee greats," said Lelands.com Chairman Joshua Evans.

The Internet bidding on the hat begins May 6 and runs through June 6 at Lelands.com.

The cap, with a hard brim and a nicely worn look, was made by A.G. Spalding & Bros., according to the auction house. It is embroidered inside with the Yankee great's name and hat size: "7 1/8 L. Gehrig."

Gehrig, a two-time American League MVP, delivered the most memorable speech in stadium history after he was diagnosed with ALS, which is now also called Lou Gehrig's Disease.

"Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth," the dying Gehrig told a sold-out crowd on July 4, 1939.

Gehrig had ended his consecutive games played streak just two months earlier; he was dead less than two years later.

Nothing Earth-shaking there, nice little story but ultimately pretty standard for Lou.

What I found really interesting is the photo that accompanied it:

amd_yankeehat.jpg

It's an early variation on the classic Yankee cap - white grommets! Not present in the classic photos. Anybody seen one of these before?

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Totally photoshopped. The bill's all muddy and pixelated.

Specifics, please. One would expect the bill of an old game-worn ballcap to be muddy. Literally. And since the pixelation looks exactly like it would look if the photo were saved as a gif file at some point, the pixelation also does not indicate to me any evidence of photo-falsification. I can tell you, if I were Photoshopping a cap to look old, the resulting picture would look a lot better than this.

So, beyond obvious elements of the photo that do not in fact point to photo-falsification, what specific things do you see that lead you to believe the photo has been falsified?

20082614447.png
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Interesting theory, but I'm not sure that it fits.

I have (or actually, have had) older caps than this in my collection. The cotton thread hasn't faded any more quickly than the wool fabric, some of which fades notoriously.

Assuming for a minute that the picture is an accurate representation, the white grommets are too even to be the product of fading alone, accounting for the strong color of the wool.

But as I said, it's still an interesting theory. We'll get a much better look at it when it goes up for auction - Lelands is great with pictures.

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Is there a button on the top of that cap?

Another purely speculative hypothesis could be that the cap aged badly, or had fraying thread, and at some point the owner had the grommets re-embroidered as a "repair" job. I've seen more misguided restoration work on more valuable items. Pure speculation, but it's possible to do such a thing. And I have no trouble imagining a seamstress looking at the white embroidery of the NY logo and choosing white thread to re-embroider the grommets.

20082614447.png
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There are so many variables: storage in light/darkness as well as many different dyes. I've seen many caps with faded eyelets and stitches (including a Padres cap that's only about 15 years old) but I've never any of which the wool panels are evenly faded (only some which have blanched areas caused by sweat).

Till I see a photo of a Yankee wearing a blue cap with white eyelets I'm going to remain skeptical.

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