Special Order Gloves.

[mikesglove]

That's a nice one Greg!
This glove just sold on ebay for $35. It's a Rawlings Gene Woodling Playmaker model PW. It's unusual for the pocket lacing. In 1954-55 The top Playmaker models had no pocket lacing, including the Gene Woodling model PM1. in 1956 Rawlings introduced patented pocket lacing on the Playmaker models. By that time, the Gene Woodling endorsement had been dropped and Bob Turley was added as the PM1 model. The model PW was uncatalogued and I suspect it was a special order glove.

[mikesglove]

The Rawlings Bob Dillinger model BD glove was introduced in 1950. It was near TOTL and featured the Floating Heel.

From 1954 till 1957 the model BD featured a laced pocket and was designated as Custom Built.

The model BD was popular among MLB players. There are two I found that were special order gloves and designated BDX.
The first is a post 1954 Custom Built model and instead of a laced pocket, it features the older style Floating heel.

The second is a 1958 non-endorsed model BDX with Heart of Hide leather. The HOH gloves were new for 1958. Someone must have really liked the model BD pattern. It was discontinued after 1957. The glove below is attributed to Tony Kubek.

[greaseape]

Mike,
While Rawlings first offered Heart of the Hide gloves to the general public in the 1958 catalog, I've often wondered if some were available to the pros at an earlier date. I was looking at the Kubek BDX you posted on the auction site and noticed the remnants of a red Rawlings patch on the wrist strap. Impossible to tell if it is the 1957 patch or a later patch from 1959 and up. Definitely not the black/gold 1958 patch. While Rawlings dropped the BD pattern after the 1958 year (last listed in the 58 catalog) I've seen photo's of players using the BD in 1959 (an example is Clete Boyer from 1959 in the glove photos section of the forum which does not display the heart of the hide stamping). I've also seen heart of the hide gloves which feature the pre 1958 Rawlings red label such as the Haddix model below. Is it possible the Kubek BDX and the Haddix are 1957 models with the heart of the hide leather or do you think they are 58 models using left over patches from 57?

[mikesglove]

I thought about that. The auction implies that the glove was possibly given to the player in 1957 by Rawlings as an early promotion of the upcoming HOH models.
It seems to make some sense since the glove is non-endorsed and has the red label.