While his power is often compared to that of contemporary Mickey Mantle, Eddie Mathews’ swing was thought by many to be the purest ever seen in baseball. From 1952 to 1968 Eddie Mathews was the bane of every National League pitcher, his number “41” striking fear into every moundsman who had the misfortune to face him. Besides clubbing over 500 home runs in his career, Mathews was paired throughout most of his career with the other great National League home run hitter of the 1950s and 1960s, Hank Aaron. Together the two hit 863 home runs, more than even Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig did during their time as teammates.

Besides Mathews frightening power with a bat in his hands, the Braves slugger was also the undefeated toughguy of the National League, always ready to back-up his teammates with his fists, especially during the vicious beanball wars with the Dodgers in the 1950s. On top of his batting and fighting prowess, Mathews is also the answer to the popular trivia question of “Who is the only player to appear with the Braves in Boston, Milwaukee and Atlanta?” as he began his career with Boston in 1952 and left the club a year after they moved to Atlanta.

Presented here is one of the jerseys worn by Mathews during the 1964 season where he belted 23 home runs with 74 RBI in 141 games played that has been photo matched by Elite Sports Photo Matching. This jersey was also the very jersey on display at the World Series Wisconsin exhibit at the Wisconsin Historical Society Museum in Madison, Wisconsin from July 17th, 2007 through January 15th, 2008. This cream-colored flannel jersey has a seven-button-down front with the classic “Braves” script on an upward tilt across the chest in red on navy tackle twill. Mathews’ number “41” is sewn on below on the left side in the same red on navy tackle twill. Navy soutache piping runs around the collar and down both sides of the buttons and the inside collar has a matching cream-colored patch with “Mathews 64-Set-2” embroidered in black. The left sleeve has the “Screaming Brave” logo patch and the Wilson size 42 tag is sewn on front left tail. The back of this jersey has the original “41” sewn on in red on navy tackle twill, with a restored “MATHEWS” in red and navy tackle twill above. This work was done by noted game-used baseball jersey expert William Henderson in April of 2020 using color matched, shrunk and dyed material to match and was place exactly over the original ghost outline from the original lettering that was pulled and stitched with bleach-colored thread. This jersey comes with a LOA from MEARS (301323) for the game use and has been given a very high grade of A9. MEARS notes in their LOA under “Alterations/Usage Problems” that there is a “Missing name on back (outline visible)”. There is a LOA from Elite Sports Photo Matching, who have photo matched this jersey. Additionally, there is a Document of Restoration from William Henderson, detailing the restoration of the name on the back of the jersey.

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