Three gloves from the HOF

[okdoak]

I found these pictures on the Baseball-reference website. One of their bloggers posted them after his trip to Cooperstown. Lucky guy!

Charlie Gehringer's bronzed glove. Must have been from late in his career; his last season was 1942. I've seen Wilson and Spalding models with that Seamless Thumb design.


Red Schoendienst's Rawlings Red Rolfe from 1956. Wonder if he had the web replaced because he preferred that style to the solid web or it was a more recent job? Hmm....


Enos Slaughter's Wilson Top Notch from 1946, the year he made his famous "mad dash" in the World Series vs Boston. The model number is 605-4. Curious if that extra number denoted pro stock or a custom made glove?


Owing to my lack of Photoshop skills, these pics are much smaller than the ones on their website. You can see the originals in Baseball-reference's blog.

[softball66]

Great Going Greg!
Now we can speculate. I've got a shot of Red kneeling with the Rolfe rolled lace earlier glove, Bet he stayed with the same glove but since RL was outlawed he had it modified with
double tunnel as he probably preferred an open type of web instead of barrel full web. Just a guess.
I think I've seen some other Wilson top line gloves with numeral added and maybe it was done so for the pro stock. Think Terry Moore of that great Cardinal outfield of the war years was
also a Wilson endorser and wearer like Slaughter. Don't know what Musial endorsed (KIDDING )
You're right about the seamless thumb on Gehringer. Must be a half dozen gloves I know of that have been bronzed.
Always love the Hall of Fame models.

[okdoak]

I think that's entirely possible that Red had his rolled lace web replaced with that I-type web, Joe. Surprising how hard it is to find good pictures of the players' game gloves on the web as well as in print. Those "Treasures of Cooperstown" type books never seem to give gloves their due. That's why I enjoyed JD's "Gloves of the World Series" post from last October so much. Some of those also showed the back of the glove, which you rarely see. And, of course, all of the info on the gloves that the players used found in TGC is a great resource, too.

[baseballjim]

Hi okdoak......Really liked your Chuck Klein split.....I am looking for a Cookie Lavaetto from the old Brooklyn club....anybody seen one?....or even know whooooo he is?....thanks....Jim

[okdoak]

Sure do...he derailed Bill Beven's no hitter with two outs in the 9th in the 1947 WS, Brooklyn versus The Evil Empire . One of our forum members had a Cookie Lavagetto glove for sale quite a while back. You could PM him to see if he still has it. Here's the link to the post:
viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3612