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Late 1940s Jack Banta Brooklyn Dodgers Game Worn Dugout Jacket
Offered is a late 1940s Jack Banta Brooklyn Dodgers game worn wool and leather dugout jacket. This was a jacket that would be worn not only in the dugout, but also in the bullpen. Banta was a 6'2" right-handed pitcher who spent his entire career in the Dodgers organization. He was with the Brooklyn Dodgers for brief times during both the 1947 and '48 seasons. His only season in which he was with the Brooklyn Dodgers all year was in 1949, when Brooklyn won the NL Pennant and lost in five games to the New York Yankees in the World Series. In '49, Banta was used both as a starter and in relief. He had a 10-6 record, with a 3.37 ERA. In the '49 World Series, he pitched in relief in three games against the Yankees, with a 0-0 record and a 3.18 ERA in 5.2 innings. In 1950, Banta started the year with Brooklyn, but he hurt his arm and pitched ineffectively, and was sent to the minors after June 21st, and he never was able to return to the Major Leagues, retiring from professional baseball in 1952. The dugout jacket comes from the personal collection of George Pfister, who was a catcher in 1941 with the Dodgers, later a coach and wound up working behind the scenes as an executive with MLB. The offered jacket was an item that would be particularly useful on cold nights early and late in the baseball season. The wool jacket was originally blue, with leather long sleeves, but over the nearly three-quarters of a century since its use, the woolen blue color has changed to almost purple, with nearly gold leather sleeves, rather than the original color, which was most likely an off-white. Across the chest is "Dodgers," in white sewn-on script. The zipper down the front is inoperable. In the neck is a manufacturer's tag, partially detached from the neck, from an unknown Buffalo, New York, athletic goods producer. The knit collar has numerous small holes, some possibly from moths, with some tears and rips, one about two inches long. The thick jacket lining below the collar has a rip of about nine inches long, and some of the jacket inner lining is exposed. The knit wrist covering at the bottom of each leather sleeve is very torn, with missing material and loose strings. In the right sleeve is a gold-colored cloth tag, the outside of which was at one time marked, but it is no longer legible; but if the tag is flipped up, the underside shows "Banta" in backwards writing as the mirror image of what was meant to be read on the outside. The back of the jacket has some small holes, and there are small stains on the front and back of the cloth and on various parts of the leather. Some of the leather has folds, discoloration and a few tears. Overall, the ravages of time have left the jacket in poor condition, yet it retains value as a circa 1949 game worn Brooklyn Dodgers' dugout jacket - when the Dodgers had not only a very promising young (24-years-old) pitcher in Jack Banta, who wore the jacket, but also their immortal pantheon of stars: Hall of Famers and "Boys of Summer" Duke Snider, Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese, and Gil Hodges. It's a dugout jacket possibly from a pennant winning year (1949) when the Dodgers faced, and lost, a Subway Series against the Yankees. It's a dugout jacket from the Brooklyn Dodgers' most illustrious era.
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