1927-28 Waite Hoyt Game Worn & Signed New York Yankees Jersey, MEARS A9....

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Hall of Fame flannel from the Bronx' greatest years!

1927-28 Waite Hoyt Game Worn & Signed New York Yankees Jersey, MEARS A9. If Lou Gehrig labored in the shadow of of Babe Ruth, then the Yankees pitching staff was bathed in a full solar eclipse during those Golden Age seasons that Ruth, Gehrig and Tony Lazzeri opened the long ball floodgates upon the American League. It's a reasonable symptom of sharing a dugout with the greatest sluggers in the history of the sport. But a quick review of the stats indicates that the defensive half of Miller Huggins' equation was every bit the equal of the offense in 1927, allowing a League-low 605 runs, over one hundred fewer than the White Sox' second-place effort. Leading all American League pitchers during that fabled 1927 World Championship campaign was Waite Hoyt, whose twenty-two and seven record rates among the finest ever executed in pinstripes. A Game One victory in the 1927 World Series sweep was Hoyt's exclamation point.

Hoyt actually improved his winning percentage during the Yankees' World Championship season of 1928, adding one more game to the wins column (28) while losing the same tally as his previous campaign (7). He'd go on to win both the first and last games of the 1928 Fall Classic sweep.

We can narrow the potential vintage of this road grey flannel to those two World Championship campaigns by the "Yankees" text that spans the chest, and the absence of a number on verso. The American League representatives of the Big Apple utilized their nickname in their wardrobe only four years--1927 to 1930--debuting jersey numbers at the start of the 1929 regular season. Thus we are left with one of the most important jerseys we have had the privilege to present to the collecting community--Hall of Fame flannel from the most gilded Yankee age.

The understated design utilizes only the aforementioned "Yankees" text on an otherwise blank exterior shell. Interior collar bears the proper "Spalding" maker's label and an embroidered red "Hoyt W.C." script at interior collar to provide the elite player attribution. The Hall of Fame hurler signs in 9/10 black sharpie just below. Size "44" is embroidered at bottom front center tail. We also find here a hand-made button hole that must have hooked into a button inside Hoyt's pants to keep his shirt tucked. Another similar hole appears in the rear tail.

The jersey exhibits solid game wear, and we note that two of Hoyt's three World Series victories in 1927 and 1928 were on the road. Some patches of light staining appear at lower chest and rear shoulder, but these are minor distractions that must be excused in light of the garment's enormous relevance and rarity. It's a Cooperstown-quality artifact by any standard of measure. LOA from MEARS, A9. LOA from Heritage Auctions. Full LOA from PSA/DNA (autograph).