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WW2 Major League Baseball Ruptured Duck patches


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The MLB hall of fame has a copy of the July 1945 American League president's letter to other teams ...which I think is in an earlier part of this thread, which listed the company name. I looked on the interwebs and saw they were still in business, so I figured why not???

 

 

Mark sends

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You never know what they still have...I was hoping they would write back saying they were sending me a box of 12 dozen blue and gold ducks they had in the basement!

 

 

Mark sends

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Ok. I was trying to figure out who wore this jersey and I found this from the site that has this image.

 

1945

In 1941, Dan Reeves and Fred Levy Jr. bought out Rams’ owner Homer Marshman for $100,000. After disappointing years in 1941 (2 wins vs 9 losses) and 1942 (5-6), the Rams suspended operations for 1943 because of the war effort and the shortage of healthy football playing bodies. Back at it in 1944, they finished 4-6.

Now it’s 1945 - enter QB Bob “The Rifle” Waterfield form UCLA and the team’s fortunes made a dramatic turn for the better. This ’45 season would mark the final season in Cleveland – Reeves & Levy decided to chase grander dreams and relocate the team to Los Angeles.

But before they go, Bob Waterfield and the Rams give the Cleveland faithful a monumental final hurrah – going 9-1 in the regular season, then beating the Washington Redskins 15-14 to win the NFL Championship! And young Bob Waterfield wins the league's Player of the Year award.

This uniform, as worn by the likes of Bob Waterfield, Clyde ‘Big’ Johnson, and Mike Scarry, features a yellow-gold collar, blue shoulder yoke and white pants – complete with blue & gold stripes. As for the patch on the left sleeve of the jersey? Look closely and you’ll see an eagle with outstretched wings amidst a giant ‘C’ for “Cleveland”. The bottom of the ‘C’ consists of red & white stripes in honor of ‘Old Glory’. This patch, we believe, was in honor of America’s successful war effort, and we would welcome hearing from anyone with even more detail about this beautiful and unusual patch – just email us at [email protected] .


PS Here is an update about the 1945 sleeve patch from reader Chris Lewis:

Chris introduced me to the "ruptured duck", a symbol that marked an honorable discharge from the military after WWII. Its official name is the Honorable Service Lapel Button. Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry describing it in detail. Chris went on to write "Granted, the patch adds the red, white, and blue to the field containing the flag so that may have been how they got around the fact that it couldn't be worn by civilians... unless it was worn on the field only by the eligible war veterans. Either way, I'm nearly positive that is what the jersey patch is."

Armed with Chris' info, I would say that the patch worn by the 1945 Cleveland Rams is a Cleveland specific patch/logo that uses a larger outer "C" for Cleveland + the "ruptured duck" itself (an eagle) + red and white stripes in the lower portion of the "C" symbolizing the US flag and America. What I don't know is if this patch/symbol/logo was created specifically for the Rams jersey or if it was used in a wider context in the city of Cleveland.

Thanks to Chris for taking the time to share the info!

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  • 1 year later...

So, I have yet to find photographic evidence of the white ones being worn. I know that teams during WW2 did not wear them on their road uniforms, which would mean that they would be white.

 

These could have been sold at PX stores. I have no clue.

 

Still, version 1/A is more rare than version 2/B.

 

There have been two sellers on eBay that have had a treasure trove of these. You can pick up some for $7 right now http://www.ebay.com/itm/WW2-US-Ruptured-Duck-Large-Jacket-Patch-felt-original-Ww2-Issue-/281885095046?hash=item41a1a93486:g:R~QAAOSwLVZVvrJj

 

I emailed this seller to see how they received them...in a marked box, etc....

 

No connection to seller. These are the version 2/B.

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The seller of the Version 2/B patch stated that "The box that they came in was an original World War II issue box with the original stock number." However, the box has since been thrown out so I cannot get any manufacturer information from it.

 

Still waiting for my mail to arrive to post the great find.

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Garandomatic

Really happy about this post... I am not much of a modern baseball fan, but I do like the history of it, can't believe one of these can be had so cheap!

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The white border ones must have been for PX wear if it had the stock number as the current seller states. I doubt that the MLB would have ordered them from the military for it to have a stock number. I would think they would have had a 3rd party make them.

 

The ones that were worn on the home jerseys by the few MLB baseball players had the blue border. Those....I would say, at auction would command $1000 or more. I would have paid $500 for one.

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I collect all things military baseball... Predominantly from World War II and earlier. I've been watching this thread progress since it was started. My focus is on baseball that is played by service members. I have a handful of uniforms, equipment and ephemera.

 

This discussion and ongoing research is fascinating!

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So a dealer posted a ruptured duck lot and I asked if they would sell it at a BIN. They asked me how much and I said "$60" and it turned to a BIN real quick. I am sure they were happy. I would have paid $500 for it. I think at a MLB auction it would fetch more than $1000

 

I have searched hundreds of websites. I have about 10 searches on eBay saved. Lots of hours looking for this. Lots of hours.

 

I finally got one. It matches the sample from the company that was sent to MLB in 1945.

 

post-122868-0-49065000-1452297776.jpg

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Since I have focused on active duty ball players and service teams, I haven't acquired any...until today (a white one).

 

Congrats on your new acquisition!!!

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