Omar Vizquel - glove used

[Mike_2007]

I have often admired Omar Vizquel's plays at SS for the Giants. His amazing fielding percentages and gold glove awards made me wonder what glove he used. I had heard Rawlings and on TV it always looked like an older model... So i looked at Getty images and was surpised to see the make! Anyone know any details on it? Looks like a SSK 2nd basemen's glove!

[BretMan]

Had the chance to see Omar many times during his years with Cleveland. Definitely one of the slickest fielding shortstops I've ever seen. He was a fan favotite and I really hated to see him go.

I also have a unique piece of Vizquel memorabilia. Vizquel grew up idolizing fellow Venezuelan shortstop Davey Concepcion. Cleveland had a promotional day to honor Vizquel and a pre-game ceremony that was attended not only by Concepcion but another legendary shortstop from Venezuela, none other than Chico Carrasquel!

Everyone in attendance received a dual-bobblehead featuring both Vizquel and Concepcion.

Vizquel was a longtime Rawlings endorser and appeared in many of their print ads. Kind of makes me wonder about the photo where you can see the thumb area of the glove. There's a big blank spot that looks like a label or logo has been removed.

Could this be a Rawlings with an SSK patch applied? It's not an uncommon practice for players that are comfortable with a particular brand of glove, but sign an endorsement deal with another company.

[Mike_2007]

Nice catch BretMan! I had noticed that the SSK patch looked newer than the rest of the glove and that there was a patch missing on the thumb but wasn't sure that they would swap maker's patches... Or that he has a SSK endorsement deal? So the question remains - what is the make/model number of the glove (originally)?

[docglov]

He used a rawlings his entire carrer until last season when he was offered a deal with SSK. His original glove was an XPGS-S then he went to a new 10 3/4 model that I had developed for Biggio. But we put no stamping on so that he would know it was made just for him.. He one of the nicest men in the game. But money talks.

[BretMan]

There are a couple of good stories about Vizquel in Noah Liberman's "Glove Affairs" book.

Various Major Leaguers were asked about how they break in their gloves. While many had their own secret potions and sacred rituals, Omar said that he used nothing at all. He just took a new glove and used it until it felt good. No oils, no secret recipes, no problem!

The other story was about one of the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards that Omar received prior to a game. The "gold glove" on top of the trophy is an actual glove painted gold, not something cast like a statue. A few minutes after receiving his award, Omar had detached the glove from the top of the trophy and was using it to take infield practice!

[docglov]

There is no doubt he is still wearing his Rawlings, that glove didnt start out with the oval hole in the thumb. The best example of this was Mike Schmidt wearing his high quality Franklin that had the same problem too many unusual holes ha. or early in his million dollar Muzino 10 year deal Pete Rose's first basemitt in all their posters of him diving toward the dugout looked a lot like the ProXFB-1 we made at that time but the labels looked different go figure........

[swingman]

Baseball players seen patching over gloves has been common. Alot of college players do it because there schools have contracts with specific companies thus obligating them to use there products. Andrew Miller did it with UNC. Pic below. He is wearing a rawlings glove but since UNC has a contract with Nike he had the insignia undone, patches removed and was covered up by the swoosh. Also this trend has gone to the cleats as well. Todd Helton actually wears a nike cleat but with a mizuno insignia over it.

[swingman]

Oh yeah nevertheless that Omar glove is a thing a beauty. Obviously done by Rawlings. But the glove definetly looks bigger then 10 3/4.

[LemonBall]

The other story was about one of the Rawlings Gold Glove Awards that Omar received prior to a game. The "gold glove" on top of the trophy is an actual glove painted gold, not something cast like a statue. A few minutes after receiving his award, Omar had detached the glove from the top of the trophy and was using it to take infield practice![/quote]


I probably shouldn't admit this, but in my youth, when I worked for a well known baseball museum in Cooperstown, I was moving some artifacts to storage. One of the artifacts was a replica of the Gold Glove award trophy provided by Rawlings.

It is indeed a real gold leather glove. A co-worker of mine, and I had the pleasure of playing a short game of catch with the Gold Glove and the gold ball that came with it.

[spedrunr]

hilarious, i will have to look for that trophy when i visit that anonymous museum!

[mikesglove]

An XPGS glove designed by Vizquel in partnership with Rawlings.

Note the extra lacing below the web reinforcing the crotch of the glove.

Vizquel in action with that model glove.