Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I just got back from the "Hall of fame" yesterday. I must say that Cooperstown is a Beautiful old city. I was a bit disapointed in the "Hall of Fame" though. It was mostly Hype, although i did enjoy looking at alot of gloves. I really enjoyed "Baseball as America" a couple of years back in Oakland California with a PCL reunion to boot. I think "Baseball as America" had awesome artifacts on display. Maybe it was just the displays at the time in the "Hall of fame" It just left me flat. One thing i did pick up on and can post photo's if people like was Joe Morgan's 2nd base glove. A Macgregor glove that looked like a childs 10" mitt that was bought from the store. Nothing fancy. I can remember almost all the double plays he turned and it amazed me on how small his glove was. Another thing i noticed was that there were a few store model autographed gloves that players used with different andorsements. Again nothing fancy. One more thing, A few doors down from the hall was a Antique baseball dealer. He was selling gloves for about 300 times of what they were worth. He had a reach Joe Dimaggio beater for only $625.00. He must of had over 500 gloves and nothing under $250.00. I'm sure the people whom have been to cooperstown know the place i'm talking about. He had an awesome collection though, Just nothing in the price range the average worker would pluck down........

Thanks for sharing - very interesting. I've never been but will go one day. Post any glove pics you have!

I was also in Cooperstown last week and found myself captivated by Joe Morgan's glove. Another glove that caught my eye was one belonging to Steve Carlton. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary Rawlings HOH with a basket web, but it also had what appeared to be an extended wrist cuff. from the way the glove was positioned, it was difficult to tell whether it was a fastback or one with a wrist strap, but it was definitely a custom glove.

I was born and raised in Cooperstown, and spent my college years working as a researcher in the baseball library, so I spent countless hours in that museum. I can tell you that the current museum has far fewer artifacts on display than they used too.

To some extent, the Hall of Fame is a victim of it's own success. It gets awfully crowded during the summer, so an effort was made to improve the flow of traffic. The resulting museum feels less intimate to me, with most of my favorite items and exhibits being relegated to storage. Also, "Baseball as America" has certainly impacted what is on display in Cooperstown.

In any case, Cooperstown is truly a baseball paradise, and you picked a great week to visit.

A few years ago I was at the Smithsonian in Washington DC and they had an exhibit from cooperstown. I didn't know ahead of time that it was there so I was more than pleasantly surprised when I "ran into" it. I must say that the hour and forty three minutes that I spent there was very, very enjoyable. It carried a feeling of reverence. Having never visited Cooperstown I can only sit back with hopes and dreams that some day I'll have the privilege of visiting there. Until that happens, at least I have memories and pictures from that exhibit to tide me over.