Offered here is a very rare 1943 Brooklyn Dodgers gray flannel road jersey. While this jersey differs from other surviving examples of 1943 gamers, it’s the variations on this model that makes this truly special. The jersey was worn by Carden Gillenwater towards the end of the 1943 season when his contract was purchased from New Orleans in the final week of the season. In limited duty, Gillenwater had 17 at-bats in his eight games played.

In today’s game, jerseys can easily be produced for new players at a moment’s notice, however, back in 1943, teams would typically use what was on hand – especially for new players brought in during towards the last part of a season. This Wilson jersey features “Brooklyn” and a paraph sewn on in blue felt across the chest. Blue piping runs around collar and down both sides of this button-down. There are two blue piping lines on the sleeve ends and Gillenwater’s number “6” is sewn on in blue felt in McAuliffe style felt on the back. “43” is embroidered in blue on the center-left front tail and the Wilson tag is sewn on the inside back collar. The jersey displays solid game use with piling and wear to the fabric where it has been tucked into the waistband of pants. There is evidence of a tag removal from the inside collar showing a rectangular glue stain.

The game used experts at Sports Investors Authentication, who have provided a detailed LOA for this jersey have noted variations in this jersey compared to other 1943 Brooklyn Dodgers’ jersey exemplars. First this jersey has a button-down front, compared with a zipper front. The Dodgers resumed using buttons in 1944. The paraph was manually angled as opposed to running parallel to avoid the buttons and was not altered. There is no red and white stars and stripes “HEALTH” patch on the left sleeve that was worn by the players in 1943 to support the war effort and no remnants of this patch are present. The Wilson neck tag is white, while other examples had a black tag. This jersey has two semi elliptical divots in the back number that cut clean through. The front right tail has been professionally replaced with the original having been cut cleanly off. A new tail, with matching vintage fabric, has been sewn in place using professional tailoring. This jersey comes with a LOA from Sports Investors Authentication (190924C17) who have determined that this jersey is “of the proper vintage that has seen game use” and that “it differs in details from the team standard can reasonably be attributed to the fact that this player was called up in the final week of the season, and was probably issued what was available and on hand. This may well have been a sample jersey made for the team at the start of the season for their consideration on a return to button front jerseys…This may have been an “emergency jersey” from the trainer’s room that was put into service on a moment’s notice for the season-ending call-up.”

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