Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

While going through the price indices for 1991-95, noted the most widely advertised gloves for that period belonged to the WHAT top five player models. Any guesses? The number four model will surprise you. These are signature model gloves. Four of the players with models were 1950s player, only one from the 1930s? Post your replies. Another fun project.

Here are my guesses Joe - (1) Mickey Mantle (2) Ted Williams (3) Stan Musial (4) Gil Hodges (5) Could be one of several - Bob Feller, Phil Rizzuto, Bill Dickey, or Joe Gordon. Would lean toward Bill Dickey because he played in the 30's and I seem to remember a lot of Bill Dickey gloves for sale in the newsletter. This may be a tough question for all the newer collectors. Don't post the answer until you get a lot of guesses.

I'd like to guess, but I've seen this list as it appears in the back of "The Vinatge Baseball Glove Pocket Price Guide" and that would be cheating!

I would think that Willie Mays and Al Dark would be in there somewhere.

What happened to the guessers on this? Fall asleep? The answers have a bearing on what might be found (in abundance ) on eBay.
1. Mantle 329
2. T. Williams, 207
3. Musial 198
4. Gil Hodges 102
5. Bill Dickey 100
6. Willie Mays 92
7. Yogi Berra 90
T8. Al Kaline, 89 tie
T8. Phil Rizzuto 89
10. Pee wee Reese 88
11. Reggie Jackson, 83
12. Joe Gordon, 86
It's a little difficult to extrapolate that more gloves were produced for these these particular players or it just could be that these gloves were deemed more popular to sell as vintage gloves.
Mantle is far ahead. Williams and Musial in nearly a dead heat for 2nd.
Hodges has to be a surprise as maybe Dickey and Berra too in that these were first base mitts and catchers mitts which were sold one out of four or five in comparison with gloves. Could be that these just held up longer over the years.
Shortstop gloves like Reese, Rizzuto were made in abundance as what kid didn't want "Pee Wee" or "Scooter" and what about the popular "Mr. Shortstop" glove.I have a close baseball friend who remembers and loved his "Mr. Shortstop" Marty Marion glove that his dad bought for him.
Note that Dave's (Bushing) motto for over abundance of 30s-40s gloves were "Dicky-Ducky and Gordons." Joe Gordon pulled into 12th place and Medwich fell in the top 20 with 56 gloves advertised.
Would wager that the same skews of gloves probably have been offered on eBay in a given period.

There are a lot of Joe Medwick, Pete Reiser gloves out there as well but I would think Nelson Fox or Al Kaline should be on that list.

The energizer battery guy is No. 8 (tie)
The little glove guy, Nellie Fox was No. 13 with 81 gloves.
Do you guys want me to post the top 20 or 30?
Joe

I bet I've owned more Brooks Robinson's than any other endorsed models...has to be in the top 20...?

Hey Joe-----I would love to see the top 30. I've seen and owned many Billy Martin gloves. My Dad and Mom were both classmates of Billy at Berkeley High School in California.
John D

11. Joe Gordon, 86; 12. Reggie Jackson, 83; 13. Bob Feller, 81 (not Fox, couldn't read my scribble; 14. Tom Seaver, 78; 15. Enos Slaughter, 72; 16. Roberto Clemente, 68 tie Brooks Robinson 68; 18. Harmon Killebrew, 67; 19. Joe Dimaggio. 66; 20. Whitey Ford, 65; 21. Red Schoendienst, 64; 22. Del Crandall, 65; 23. Duke Snider, 63; 24. Carl Yastrzemski, 60; 25. Johnny Bench 58; 26. Richie Ashburn, 56; 27. Marty Marion, 54; 28. Bobby Richardson, 52; 29. Roy Campanella, 51; tie 30. Don Drysdale, 51.
Followed up by Catfish Hunter, Harvey Kuenn, Early Wynn, Rudy York, Al Dark (45), Joe Medwick 48, Billy Martin 47. Pete Reiser was a little further down at 39.

Ok, after thinking about this some more, how can Elmer Riddle and Frank McCormick not be on this list?

Your mention of Elmer Riddle brought up something I was thinking about a few weeks ago.

You used to see tons of these on eBay. Back a few years ago, I would have guessed that it was perhaps the most advertised glove from the 40's. You couldn't do seach without coming up with a dozen of them!

Today, it seems like they are few and far between.

Has there been a drastic change on the "supply" side for these gloves?

Have they been snatched up and are in the hands of avid collectors?

Did their abundance keep the prices lower, thus making them attractive alternatives to non-collectors, thus taking even more of them off the market?

In fact, there are quite a few names on Joe's list that, maybe a decade ago, I would agree with but seem to have fallen off the list in 2008. Remember, that list is 13-17 years old! We have seen a sea-change in the market since then in regards to how gloves are advertised and sold.

In 2008, do we really see more Joe Dimaggio gloves (#19 on the list) advertised that Catfish Hunters (#31)?

One more thought: Of the players endorsing gloves in the modern era, and in the years since that list was complied, who would you say pops up the most? My guess would have to be Ken Griffey, due to the abundance of gloves produced by Rawlings since that list was published.

That echoes something I brought up in the forum several months ago, "Best Selling Glove of All Time?", in the General Glove Discussion forum. In that forum, it was generally speculated that the RBG36 was probably the best selling glove of the "modern" era, with the Ken Griffey, Jr. endorsement being the most prevalent, so that discussion would support your supposition, BretMan, that his would "pop up the most." Someone in the forum wrote that, at one time, the Dale Murphy endorsement was the most prevalent. I would guess that Cal Ripken, Jr. gloves would be plentiful, too.

I asked a related question in a different forum thread. (My mind moves in circles, but it still gets off-track! ) What endorsements will be valuable to collectors 10, 20, 30 years down the road? The consensus was that fewer endorsements are going ON gloves these days, and the endorsements seem to be going on the department store quality gloves, which are going to be much less desirable to collectors: ex, the RBG36, which is no longer of high quality. Few HOH, Pro, A2000, WorldWin, higher quality gloves are being endorsed by today's players. I may be wrong about this, but at least, that's the way things seem to me!

Players still "endorse" gloves on the Rawlings, Mizuno and the Wilson web sites ... any ideas why their facsimile signatures don't appear on the higher-end gloves that are similar to their gamers?

I think the constant movement of stars from team to team keeps young kids from having life time hero's. I know my set of Brooklyn dodgers baseball cards didn't need upgrading very often. Also my experence from working all the tournaments. That I do from 12 year old and up that they now wear a much higher quality and expensive glove And they know what they know what they want, so a autograph model is the last thing they notice For the most part they are wearing a Pro level glove.I have even had a request to help a father find a third Rawlings Primo for his 12 year old because he plays 3 positions....