From the horse's mouth...

[vintagebrett]

One of my collecting goals is to see if an OK / Sonnett glove was ever used in the Major Leagues. I've had the pleasure talking with Bill Sonnett III and some other people who worked for OK / Sonnett but haven't gotten anything solid yet. Many of the players that endorsed the gloves have passed on but last week I was reading about Bobby Doerr and found out he is still an active autograph signer. I mailed him a letter asking if he ever used an OK / Sonnett glove along with an SASE. Low and behold, today in the mail, I received a reply! (In less than 8 days - from CT to OR to CT - wow!). Here is what he had to say:

[Mr. Mitt]

Even though it's not the news you were looking for, that's a fantastic note! Mr. Doerr is such a gentleman. I had the pleasure of meeting him a few years back and had an absolute blast speaking with him. Have you reached out to the rest of the surviving OK/Sonnett endorsers? Actually, an interesting project would be to get in touch with a slew of ex-ballplayers (those who played pre-1960, for example) and ask them if they recall the make/models of the gloves they used and if they remember the details of any endorsements they had (no matter the manufacturer). Would make for a cool reference database.

[vintagebrett]

I'm still looking into which endorsers are still alive and seeing if I can find their address to write them a note. Unfortunately, I believe Mr. Doerr may be the the only surviving script endorser. One of my goals is to write to as many Sonnett / OK endorsers as I can and see what happens. This was a test case and it makes me want to write more. Also, brings me back to my upper elementary days when we used to write to players all the time - still have my Donruss autographed Warren Spahn and a Duke Snider somewhere.

[Number9]

I have a similar note from Dom DiMaggio. I picked up one of his Sonnett gloves and sent a letter with the same question. I'll see if I can find it and post a scan.

[swalt1234]

Hey guys -- I did just what Jerry said from 1994-98 and wrote to over 60 ballplayers asking them to sign a mitt and what kind of glove they used. Almost all the non-HOFers signed the glove and about half sent notes with the glove. Not a single player kept the glove but some did ask for a fee. I think Joe Phillips wrote about the topic of what gloves players used in his newsletter. Most of the players I wrote to are gone now. I'll look up the notes and try to post some this weekend with a tally of the gloves they used.

Mark

[Mr. Mitt]

Such a cool project. I bet they appreciated the out of the ordinary inquiries about gloves.

[okdoak]

That is really cool. I've had gloves and bats signed thru the mail by most of the old Milwaukee Braves players and I was always blown away by how gracious and fan friendly they were. I did send a card to Bob Dillinger to sign and asked him if he used his Rawlings model when he played. He wrote back that Rawlings sent him two gloves each year, but didn't specify if they were his model. John Sain signed his model MacGoldsmith for me at a card show years back. When I asked him about using a splitfinger glove he replied "I'd punch holes in the fingers and run a lace thru it. Catch the ball better that way." The players from that era were indeed class acts. Hope you find the information, Brett.

[swalt1234]

Here are some letters I received in the early '90s. I have found 20 good answers and I'll tabulate them on a later post. Sorry, none of these guys from the '40s or '50s used Sonnet or OK. The last player was Eddie Miller.
Mark

[vintagebrett]

Those are great - thanks for sharing. Love Jim Landis' line about using MacGregor but liking Wilson better. Cool.

[Mr. Mitt]

That's really great stuff! I wish more of us had the foresight like Mark to do things like this while more of the old-timers were still with us.

[GloveCrazy]

Those are phenominal ... what a great concept!

It's really interesting to me that Doerr used Rawlings gloves because I must have several different brands of Doerrs (OK, Glove, Mac/Golds, etc) but don't recall ever seeing him on a Rawlings. Was happy to see Joff Cross used his models because they are one of my all-time favorites. Also, not surprised to see so many people using Mort Coopers ... they were great and a little revolutionary. Didn't Mantle start off with a Cooper?

[Number9]

Here's my through the mail Q&A with Dom. I know I got a better answer out him at one point, must have been on the phone. He was one of the all time greats when it comes to calling the people who wrote to him. Pesky was probably the only person to outdo him. He invited me over for dinner. Pretty awesome talking Red Sox with someone whose seat at Fenway Park is on the bench next to the manager.

[murphusa]

As my interest was in bats for so long, I also wrote to many players in the 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's and inquired what bat and the model etc they used in games.

I also asked when they played baseball as a kid, who they pretended to be when they came to bat.

I'll post some when I get home tonight

[GloveCrazy]

Ah, I just looked at Joff Cross's letter more closely and I was wrong ... he used Lonny Frey gloves. Darn you , Rawlings!! Just kidding, I grew up a Rawlings guy.

[swalt1234]

Hi guys, I looked through all my old letters and here is the tally of gloves used by players I contacted:

Woody Held -- "I used a model 2000"
Johnny Pesky -- Mort Cooper model
Vinegar Bend Mizell -- "I used a big glove I believe it was called Trapeez"
Joff Cross -- Lonny Frey model
Johnny Sain -- Rawlings Mort Cooper
Roy Face -- "I used a Wilson glove, but I don't remember the model"
George Strickland -- "old Lonny Frey glove, then went to the 3 finger glove, also by MacGregor" (?)
Mace Brown -- (phone conversation 1994) "signed with Goldsmith in 1936 or '37, but didn't use the glove much. Liked the Rawlings Bill Doak model better"

Hal Naragon -- Wilson A2400 and A2402
Gil McDougald -- Rawlings Lonny Frey model. He thought Henry Aaron was the best player of his era.
Merrill May -- (phone conversation)"always used Rawlings products"
Ray Boone -- Rawlings Lonny Frey
Don Mincher -- Rawlings Trapper model
Jerry Lumpe -- "I used Spalding gloves..."
Jim Landis -- "I only used MacGregor because I had a contract with them, ... I thought Wilson was the best overall"
Lonny Frey -- Rawlings Lonny Frey model
Eddie Miller -- "long fingered...Rawlings"
Babe Dahlgren -- "I used a Rawlings model"
Herb Score -- (personal discussion) Rawlings Herb Score model

That's all I could find. Rawlings was for sure the dominant glove in the 1940s and '50s

Mark