Fewer player autograph gloves these days

[softball66]

Last newsletter we published a story on the Dubow gloves and how that company's player model gloves help fill out team glove collections with names not found on the big brands.
I began wondering after my recent days new glove shopping if there were fewer names on gloves these days as compared to the '50s and '60s when there was 20 or more different names per each company's glove line. Recently, and I counted names from the 2000 Rawlings catalog, there was less than a dozen. If one wanted to put a team collection from the 2000 glove makers, he might be sorely pressed.
The reason might be a simple economic one that the glove companies would rather deal with a few big stars and just spread their names out on gloves along the product line.
Anyone notice this trend or care to comment on it?

[mudman]

That is a great observation. I have often thought what ever happened to the "personal model" glove. Back in days gone by that was a designation of a really top quality glove. Sure wish some glove companies would do that again.

[vintagebrett]

It may be that glove companies can't afford to pay a price that may actually entice a player to endorse a glove. I'm sure back in the vintage days, players had to supplement their income so they were more willing to take anything from the glove companies. Nowadays, with the average salary hovering around 3 million, they probably feel they don't need what a glove company can offer.

Another reason is maybe players don't want their names on crappy, low line gloves???

Bart: How could you Krusty, I'd never lend my name to an inferior product.
Krusty: Tthey drove a dumptruck of money to my house, i'm not made of stone!

[V-Anchored]

What I really miss by this change is not having lesser players names on gloves. My very first glove was a Grady Hatton model. Rawlings even saw fit to put guys like Bob Dillinger and Johnny Groth on high-end gloves. Not to pick on these two players, they were good enough, but they certainly weren't superstars. Today, about all you can find are bona fide all-stars with their names on the gloves.

[softball66]

In the 1950s: Rawlings got locked into putting names of local (St. Louis) players like the Browns' Groth and Dillinger. It was fortunate to line up the more successful Cardinal locals like Musial, Boyer and Marion. And later some kid from Oklahoma. Spalding was working closely with the Yankee players like DiMaggio, later Berra, Ford, Maris to name a few. MacGregor in the '50s did us and the world a big favor by signing Mays, Aaron F. Robby, Clemente, the early black stars. Wilson was getting its local (Chicago) players like Nelson Fox, Ernie Banks and had the weird "kickback" to old timers like Lefty Gomez, Ripper Collins, Ray Schalk, Paul Richards who had retired 20 years earlier. Ted Williams and Bob Feller were the "W" big dogs though. And they added the Dodgers Campanella and Hodges at this time. It's interesting to study and conjecture on the endorsement and glove name placement by these companies during the 50s decade.
If anyone wants a sample copy of my nletter covering the Dubow player gloves, will be glad to send it out.

[V-Anchored]

I had never thought about the St. Louis connection with Rawlings and Dillinger and Groth. Makes a little more sense now. Thanks!

[softball66]

Rawlings would made a lot of us happier if they'd signed another St. Louis Brownie. Fellow by the name of Satchel Paige. But...Rawlings didn't put a black player's name on a glove until Mudcat Grant, I think in 1961. Wasn't politically correct one might conjecture. MacGregor led the way with black signees. Can anyone name the Hall of Fame outfielders +1 on the MacGregor label? This is a whole different topic really. Big mystery with the black players in the early days. Why did Denkert put Henry Thompson seemingly on thousands of gloves and Hall of Fame bound Monte Irvin on just a few?

[crackofthebat]

I can only come up with three:
Hank Aaron
Willie Mays
Frank Robinson

[softball66]

You're right on the early three. Clemente came in 1968 on an import model. Roberto moved around the glove company world: Higgins, Rawlings, MacGregor, Franklin, Sonnett. I think Clemente was on same glove as F. Robby too.

[mudman]

Yes I have a triple crown USA MacGregor, that has Frank Robinson, and Roberto Clemente autographs on it. Thinking it's from around '68?.

Speaking of Roberto Clemente I have been told he used a Rawlings TG12 as a gamer. But I am not sure of that.

[softball66]

We believe Roberto used an TG12, also an HH (one which got thrown into the stands), probably HSP and maybe a few other top of lines.

[mudman]

I was wrong on the Robinson/Clemente glove it's a MVP USA model, not a triple crown model as I stated before. Sorry about that!

[BretMan]

Also, if memory serves- no reference books handy right now- isn't that "dual autograph" glove endorsed by Clemente and Brooks Robinson (not Frank R.)?

Or am I thinking of a different glove?

[mudman]

Brett;

I dug out the glove in question. It is a 2MV model with both Roberto Clemente and Frank Robinson's endorsements on it. Really neat glove. Had me thinkin' for a bit.

[BretMan]

I finally had a chance to flip through my glove guides tonight. Actually, we were both right- sort of...

There is a Clemente and Brooks Robinson endorsed glove out there. The Rawlings "World Series MVP" model was a red, white and blue glove issued in 1971. That's the one I was thinking of. I see those fairly often on eBay.

The Macgregor glove I had never seen before. Sure enough, the guide lists this as a 1968 model, model number G2MV. Sounds like a cool glove!

MacGregor released a few other multiple-endorsement gloves, a couple of which I have. The most recent one I picked up is a model number "PROM". It has a logo in the palm that says "Pro Model", so I guess that's what the model number refers to.

This glove has THREE endorsements- Pete Rose, Joe Morgan and George Foster. All three had their own individually endorsed MacGregor gloves. With MacGregor being based in Cincinnati, they always seemed to have a lot of Reds endorsers in their stable.

But MacGregor outdid themselves in 1967 with the "4-Star"model, featuring the signatures of Clemente (again!), Willie Mays, Zoilo Versalles and Tony Oliva.

It's strange that multiple-endorsed gloves aren't very common, but Clemente appears on at least three such known models!