Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Probably many of you are familiar with Paul Lukas, the detail obsessed uniform afficienado at Uniwatchblog.com. Nobody takes athletic apparel and its myriad details more seriously than Mr. Lukas. I also enjoy athletics aesthetics, and I am a daily reader of his blog. Usually, I log onto my computer, check my email to see if there is anything important, and then hit this forum, Uniwatch, and Espn.com, in that order.

Today, Mr. Lukas had an interesting item about Mitt Romney in Michigan:

"I caught a quick glimpse of a Mitt Romney campaign rally on TV yesterday and noticed that many of the people in the crowd were holding up signs shaped like baseball gloves — mitts, get it? Only problem is, a regular fielder’s glove is not a mitt, because “mitt” is short for “mitten” and only applies to the fingerless gloves worn by catchers and first basemen. Do we really want a president whose campaign makes this sort of mistake? I think not."

The paragraph is linked to this picture:

THIS IS A BASEBALL FORUM...THIS IS NOT A POLITICAL FORUM...NO VOTE HERE...

My post was not meant to be political at all ... it is a light-hearted jab at Romney's campaign posters, which, indeed, are baseball related, and more specifically, glove related. I thought some of the forum members might enjoy Mr. Lukas's comments. If I was mistaken, I apologize.

As long as the discussion centers around knowing the difference between mitts and gloves, I see no problem with it.

HOW DOES TWO CHILDREN HOLDING UP CARDBOARD GLOVES BECOMES A POLITICAL STATEMENT ON A BASEBALL GLOVE FORUM??

I don't believe there is any political intention with this - Cowboy was pointing out the signs, which are glove related, and discussing how Mr. Lukas called him out about the difference between a mitt and a glove. This is fair game for a forum that discusses gloves, especially after our discussion about "What is a workman's glove." I'm positive this thread is meant to be light hearted and not a political endorsement or non-endorsement.

I grew up in the midwest, then moved west for college in 1974.

In the east I'd always heard a distinction with the equipment used by catchers and 1st basemen called mitts and the equipment used by the other defenders were gloves. I noticed that westerners called everything a mitt. It was rare for anyone to call them gloves. Anyone else have this experience?

BTW -- I also thought the originating comments were lighthearted and not meant to promote any political pov.

Political or not, if your vote is being swayed one way or the other because someone posted a photo on a baseball glove forum, you've got issues. Vote for whomever suits your fancy. Vote twice if you can. Personally, I say a vote for the right to post photos is a vote for America. I vote yes and I ask for your support.

As they pertain to baseball, mitts are mittens. As it pertains to a politician, mitts have more than the average number of fingers. This is an evolutionary trait common among false-smiling promise-makers accustomed to reaching for personal gains.

Cowboy, I didn't read anything bad or negative into your post. It was just an observation and a quote from someone else. No harm done. Thanks for sharing it. I love to see gloves out there, even when they are used out of context.

I have two pet peeves in this hobby. 1 - When people call any early glove a workman's glove and 2 - when people misuse the words glove and mitt. A glove has fingers and a mitt doesn't. A catchers mitt and a basemans mitt are mitts, not gloves. There is no such thing as a catchers glove or first base glove. As you can see, I'm a stickler for details.

That being said, I will no longer vote for him. I might have before I saw that picture (just kidding).

JD

When I was in little league [a long time ago] my coach told us all to grab your mitts and go out in the field. One of the young players told the the coach it was a glove and not a mitt. The coach said call it what you want just keep your mitts to yourself and go play baseball. I only wish I still owned that first mitt/glove I learned to play catch with.