1950's Rawlings Mantle

[Jimmy R.]

I’m fairly new to the hobby, picked up a few pre-war gloves over the past couple years, but don’t know much about post-war leather. I’m specifically interested in adding a really nice 1950’s Mantle to my collection, but need some guidance in deciphering Rawlings’ model numbers. Could the board help in listing Mick’s 1950’s gloves in order of quality/desirability/rarity/value? I’m assuming that the list would be the same for all four of those qualities.

I’ve read discussions where 1960’s models have been noted, but haven’t found anything about the older gloves. I’m assuming that the PM would top the list. What comes next and how do the MM, MM4, etc. rank?

Lastly, if I may be so bold, I’d appreciate anyone informing me if one of these top-of-the-line Mantles are currently available from your collection.

[BretMan]

Rawlings introduced their Mantle-endorsed gloves in 1954. The top-of-the-line models were the MM and the MMP "Personal Models".

The MM gloves sold from '54 through '57. The MMP sold from '58 through 1961, until the XPG6 was introduced in 1962.

There were a mix of mid-quality and lower-priced gloves, dubbed "Autograph" or "Professional" models, sold during these years. I'll try to break these down, along with the average catalog retail prices to give you an idea of the relative quality of the gloves.

MM (1954-1957/$27)
MMP (1958-1961/$32)
MM2 (1961/$20)
MM3 (1959-1960/$20)
MM4 (1954-1956, 1958/$15)
MM5 (1957-1970/$15)
MM6 (1959-1960/$15)
MM8 (1954-1957/$10)
MM9 (1958-1969/$8)

That's a pretty good start for the '50's. Some of these overlap into the '60's, and the '60's had a host of Mantle glove models all its own.

You can barely keep track of the players without a scorecard!

[Jimmy R.]

That was extremely helpful, thank you. I've noticed black Rawlings patches as well as red ones. Are the black patches specific to a particular year or model?

[BretMan]

Forum member "ebbets55" has put together a wonderful website with hundreds of pictures of old gloves. In the "Rawlings" section he has photos of patches through the years, along with dating information for the different patches. It's worth a look!

Baseball Glove Collector .com

[Jimmy R.]

Thanks. I looked through the photos on the site and there are two Mantle MM model gloves displayed. One has a black patch and the other has a red patch. The well known red patch seems apparent through many eras (following the original Rawlings white insigna with a red crest). What differentiates the 1950's MM black patch?

[Jimmy R.]

OK, my bad... 1958 is the black patch. Any reason why it changed for just one model year?

[leftygomez]

50th anniversery patch 1958

[leftygomez]

denny esken told me once that mantles first glove was a bill doak his dad bought him and his glove that you see in that famous rookie shot(1951) is a Rawlings mort cooper. i know somone that claims to know where that glove is and i came across a picture of it the other day with mick wearing it and it has MICK (one letter on each finger) written horizontally across the glove which matches up with the picture that i saw of the one the guy claims is the original. more digging to do.

[Jimmy R.]

Thanks very much to all of you! All my questions (for now) have been graciously answered. It's fantastic to have this pool of knowledge in one place... so cool!

[softball66]

Denny's right. Mickey's dad got him a Doak for Christmas gift when he was young. It was mentioned in one of Mantle's biographies. When he showed up for first Spring Training in Ariz. he had a playmaker and Yankee Coach Frank Crossetti made him get rid of it and got him a five finger glove, probably got the MC for him. Mantle was trying to play shortstop at the time. This was discussed in the Mantle book Rawlings promoted with Mick.

[leftygomez]

boy would i luv to get my hands on that playmaker. ever wonder what happened to a glove like that. sitting in a shed somewhere, plucked out of the garbage, who knows?