Here is a picture of what I believe to be a 1972 Fleer Baseball Cloth Patches uncut sheet:
I dated that sheet as being from 1974 due to the lack of Padres patches as this would have most likely been from the year that they were planning to move to DC.
In comparing the 2 sheets, we can see that the Orioles replaced the Rangers on the 1972 sheet for both the logo patch as well as the cap patch. Presumably the Senators would have been in those positions on the earlier sheets. The 1972 sheet also allows us to see the Padres, which were replaced on the 1974 sheet by a Yankees logo and a Cardinals cap patches, making those effectively double prints.
Other than these changes, the positions of the other teams all remain the same between the 2 sheets. We can also see some of the logos that changed, such as the Indians logo and cap, the Braves cap (from a capital "A" to a lower case "a") and the Angels (from the lower case "a" in 1972 to the capital "A" in 1974.
I would like to thank the person who reached out to me and provided these pictures as they greatly enhance our understanding of these cloth patches and some of the changes that occurred over the years.
The White Sox logo is totally wrong for 1972, though.
ReplyDeleteNice sheets. I recall as a kid getting mostly packs of the football cloth patches in '74. Might have gotten some stuff in '72 maybe. 1974 seems to be the first year I actively got packs in stores that I remember. Even though my collection had plenty of cards from 1966 or so to 1972 at that time. For some reason I didn't have any 1973 cards in '73. But I do recall getting cards by the ton in 1974 and 75 when I was 9 and 10. I also recall getting some of the 1970 (and maybe 1971) Fleer Loughlin World Series cards in the stores. But 1973 eluded me for all sports.
ReplyDeleteGood point about the White Sox. Even by 1974, Fleer still hadn't updated the cap patch to reflect that their caps were red.
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