BIG LEAGUE BASEBALLS.com | MUSEUM OF BASEBALLS | MISCELLANEOUS, MISPRINTS & PROTOTYPES | 1979 World Series RED-Stamped Prototype
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About the Ball: The 1979 World Series Ball should be blue. Not only is this one BOLD red, it also has a minor variation in the text. The Commissioner's signature stamp is spelled out in full under the signature on the actual game ball. This version is abbreviated to say "COMM" and it's place after the signature.
One last difference, the "76th World Series" commemorative logo on the lower panel is larger and bolder than on the actual blue 1979 game ball.
It's a pretty safe bet that Rawlings and/or MLB were still experimenting at this time to see which colors and print styles would work best. It's also reasonable to believe that these are misprints, and Rawlings ran a few dozen off before they realized they loaded the wrong ink?
Although these are extremely rare, a few have popped up and several collectors have confirmed that they too have one in their collections.
