It's way to express your loyalty and fanaticism in way that allows others to take notice. Fellow fans will walk by and give you a knowing nod - as if you both belong to an exclusive club. The opposition gives you a stare because deep down you know that they wish they could follow a team as cool as yours.
Then there are fans that have the ability to take the extra step of adding game-used apparel of your favorite player. Not that this is required of any fan since many game-used jerseys can sell for far more than what a typical fan can afford. It's just if you can do it, then by all means you should. After all, having a game-used jersey is like wearing history. And by donning them you can feel ever closer to your favorite team or player.
Featured below are a couple of game-used Dodger jersey's currently for sale at Legendary Auctions, and I thought I would share them with you.
Above is a 1977 Dodgers road jersey of then coach Jim Gilliam. He was one of the most beloved Dodger players in Los Angeles history. In fact, he is the only Dodger player to have his number retired who is not in the Hall of Fame. He had suffered an brain hemorrhage near the end of the 1978 Dodger season, and was posthumously given the honor two days after his death - just prior to clubs World Series match-up against the Yankees that year. The outpouring of respect and love he had from the players and the organization was enormous.
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Mike Marshall, or Dr. Mike Marshall as he likes to be called, is one of the more legendary relievers to ever put on a Dodger uniform. In 1974 he appeared in 106 games for Los Angeles (setting a Major League record), finished 83 of them and recorded 21 saves. For his efforts he was awarded the Cy Young that season. Featured here is a game-used 1975 home jersey once worn by Marshall.
BTW, Marshall has a Ph.D. in kinesiology, and is known to advocate a different style of pitching that he believes will end arm-related pitching injuries. Per a brief description found on his wikipedia page:
Marshall teaches and advocates a pitching method he developed that he "believes could completely eradicate pitching-arm injuries." He wants pitchers to have a smooth transition. To pitch the arm has to externally rotate (hand lays back) before the ball accelerates. With traditional pitchers the thrower often lifts his elbow before his hand (also called scapula loading); this leads to the ball coming up late and the arm to externally rotate late. The elbow will be accelerated forward while the hand still goes backward, which creates enormous stress on the arm
Marshall instead wants pitchers to externally rotate early as they swing their arm up. That means the pitcher will lift the hand before the elbow, so that the wrist faces away from the body and up, the hand is above the elbow when the front foot touches the ground, which leads to a smooth transition without a "forearm bounce," as Marshall calls it (Marshall believes this causes UCL injuries, which require Tommy John surgery). He wants to first lay back the forearm and then accelerate by rotating the body instead of bending over, in order to protect the elbow against injury.
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