Hey, pennant guys

[Domer05]

Rob: Glad you enjoyed it

So, my impression of WGN was that, outside of Chicago teams, they did not really make MLB pennants until the mid to late 1960s. They made a few Cubs and White Sox pennants before then, but ... I wasn't aware of any dated pennants from non-local teams as early as 1958. Good find!

Most of the non-local MLB pennants I showed in my post appeared to be from the latter half of the 1960s. Note that the Cardinals one features a "Busch Memorial Stadium" (1966+) and the Braves one features the Atlanta Braves (1966+). The '64 Yankees one was the earliest dated one I could find for a non-Chicago team. I just assumed they all were made within a 4-5 year window.

Apparently not. I guess they adopted this style in the late 1950s and continued using it throughout the 60s..?

The Cincinnati Redlegs "Big Red Machine" one was a bit puzzling. The earliest reference to "Big Red Machine" I could find seems to have come in 1969; however, most historians would consider this team's reign to have spanned the 1970-79 range. By 1969, however, MLB had cracked down on unlicensed novelties, so I can't imagine WGN made this as late as 1970 or thereafter, but who knows....

The other interesting thing is that I didn't think the Reds were still using the name "Redlegs" by the late 1960s or 70s. Perhaps they used "Redlegs" over "Reds" to skirt copyright laws that MLB had begun enforcing? I am curious as to PerezFan's take on this.

Finally, you make an interesting point about the above-average condition these WGN pennants are consistently found in. I thought the same as you: that these were primarily unsold stock found in a warehouse recently. But, I'm starting to think they were just really well made.