Latest Minor League addition, courtesy of Cat Whitfield

[RITM]

For those of you familiar with my site you will know that I had the pleasure of interviewing Cat Whitfield last fall. Before the interview I was told that Cat was aware of his example as a pro baseball player and gave consideration to the way he conducted himself in front of young people. Speaking to him personally I loved his gentle spirit.

After completing the interview I told Cat of how I had picked up a Charlotte O's jersey worn during the 1980 Southern League championship season. The jersey had since been signed by Jim Palmer and Cal Ripken, Jr. Cat informed me that plans were in the works for the 30th anniversary reunion for the Charlotte O's. Cat graciously offered to take my jersey to the reunion to get it signed by the former Charlotte players in attendance. Today I received the jersey back from Cat along with his name badge for the reunion. Here are the pictures:

 

[colts1888]

thats awesome congrats on a great piece

 

[RITM]

thats awesome congrats on a great piece

Thanks so much! I am still amazed that he would even consider doing something like that at his reunion. Unfortunately the snow and other obligations kept some of the guys away from the reunion. You will see that Dan Logan signed the uniform. Dan was part of the 1981 TCMA and WTF sets. When I chatted with Dan about the jersey he was pretty sure that it was the uniform he wore back in 1980. Since it was not just signed by the 1980 Championship team I may try to add other signatures from former O's. At the same time I hope to add sigs from other members of the 1980 Championship team.

 

[muskiesfan]

Wow! :shock: Congrats! I don't mean to keep sputtering sentence fragments, but that is truly incredible. Incredibly nice gesture by Cat Whitfield to do that for you. The jersey is amazing. Congrats again.

 

[RITM]

Wow! :shock: Congrats! I don't mean to keep sputtering sentence fragments, but that is truly incredible. Incredibly nice gesture by Cat Whitfield to do that for you. The jersey is amazing. Congrats again.

Thanks so much! It was already a piece I could've never imagined owning. Having an actual jersey worn during the SL Championship season of 1980. A friend owns one he obtained directly from someone on the team. He compared his copy to the one I have and it checked out. Of course having access to some of the players now confirms it as well. Either way I didn't have the money when it first became available and the seller decided to keep it. Later on he contacted me through the site and gave me a great price.

I did some checking and came up with the following:

- The jersey has been signed by 15 of the 35 players that played for Charlotte in 1980.
- Of the 14 guys that would make it to the majors from the 1980 team 5 have signed the jersey.

I checked it out and Jim Palmer never played for Charlotte. Jim signed the jersey at a card show in 1981. The jersey was later signed by Cal at a Knights game. Dan Logan, who is in the 1981 Rochester WTF and TCMA sets, said he believes that he wore the jersey in 1980.