Posted on by Shannon Shark @metspolice

Ralph Kiner’s odd coach’s uniform

#54 – explainable

He is in a road jersey. The batter (if I should know 1971’s #28 off the top of my head go ahead and rip me) is in a home uniform….and take a look at Ralph’s cap. It has the Mets ball logo on it.


Krazy Kiner Kap tip to Kevin.

9 Replies to “Ralph Kiner’s odd coach’s uniform”

  2. I do not think that is a NY Mets player Ralph Kiner is talking to. Based on the photo I think that is Ron Hansen of the NY Yankees. He wore #28 that year and was of that body type. So my thinking is that this is from a Mayors Trophy Game. Not sure if you remember those but they were an annual event long before intra league play.

  3. Didn’t we go through this already?…the old comments should be kept.

    It is Jorgensen, in some instructional league…Kiner was given a uniform he could fit in (Rube Walker)…probably had few caps around, so he used that one.

  4. If the year was 1971 as stated in article it could not have been Mike Jorgensen. John Milner wore #28 in 1971.

    1. To end all this mystery, I have just gone to my incredible resource…almost every Met Yearbook since 1969. The 1972 Yearbook explains everything. There is a 2 page spread “Planting The Seeds…the cultivation of major league championships is sown on the obscure, but vital and constantly tilled fields of the Player Development Program. Among the Projects: The Florida Instructional League, 1971.” EVERYBODY is wearing the hat Kiner has. Some players are wearing home jerseys, some road. Jerry Grote is giving catching tips…he is wearing number 43. So numbers are not indicative of anything. Whitey Herzog is in full catcher’s gear. Almost every prospect was a future dud, except maybe Ken Singleton and Mike Jorgensen.

      One picture fully explains the Kiner picture above…it is captioned “Special batting instructor Ralph Kiner and Connors, Singleton, Wayne Garrett (an established MLB player by then, wearing #45) and Jorgensen watch video replay machine.” (The machine looks state of the art for that time…something akin to an old B&W tv monitor)…Jorgensen is wearing a home jersey, #28…Kiner is wearing a road jersey, number obscured.

      So that ends the entire mystery. The screen shot above was taken probably the same day. If Shannon is interested, I could scan all this and send to him tomorrow maybe. I have a treasure trove of such info from almost every yearbook. If Shannon were to treat me to a game in September and a Man Up shirt, maybe I could do a special summer series of scans of interesting stuff.

      1. BTW, Wayne Garrett is from Florida and Grote was from Texas…they were close by, explaining why they were in those pics.

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