BIG LEAGUE BASEBALLS.com | MUSEUM OF BASEBALLS | MISCELLANEOUS, MISPRINTS & PROTOTYPES | Rawlings 1984 World Series Ball Reprint
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Can you spot the mistake on this new 1984 World Series baseball? Rawlings and/or Major League Baseball reproduced all All-Star and World Series Baseball to sell in complete sets. Some of these sets were broken up and baseballs were sold individually. This has led to an unknown number of misprinted ball out there in the market place. In general, BigLeaugeBaseballs.com does not approve of reprinting vintage baseballs, but there can be some exceptions. This ball make for a nice misprint if added to the collection.
Some issues to note when looking for originals vs. reprints - first, this ball has the "new" Rawlings logo, with the large circled "R" in the middle. This logo began use in the 2000 season (although it may have come out at some point in 1999), so any baseball 1999 or prior should have the old Rawlings logo, without that big "R."
Additionally, Rawlings is permitted to continue printing each year's special event baseball for up to three years, to meet demands. The problem is, older baseballs which had the "Haiti" stamp on the sweet spot, may have accidentally received the newer version of that stamp - up front on the top panel, under the Rawlings logo. So it's tough to tell sometimes what's a "new production run" versus an "original run" - to add to the confusion, there are some older baseballs from 1978 through the late 80s that had been produced over many years, and even those can have a slight variation from the actual on-field version - if you can follow me.
When in doubt, feel free to send us an email. But even we can't 100% confirm which baseballs from certain years are the true on-field ball. There are still a few unanswered questions out there for a few event baseballs.
