Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Harry Latina had a little known patent in 1925 that improved the grommet lacing on Rawlings gloves. Note the extra tunnel loop at the crotch between the thumb and first finger


The ad below from a 1931 Rawlings catalog shows 2 gloves with the patented "special cross lace"


The Rawlings glove below shows the grommet web and the extra leather tab and loop at the crotch between the thumb and forefinger.

I found a Rawlings G60 Cross Lace model a while back. Have also seen similar webs on Thos. Wilson and Brine gloves. I wonder if it was doomed by the advent of the tunnel web. Seems like late 20's to early 30's was its heyday.

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Saw this nice 1920's Rawling's "Hack Wilson" glove with the patented "Cross Lace" feature. The glove has a grommet web and the extra tunnel loop sewn in at the crotch, all interlaced. From the looks of the glove, it's possible it was one of the more expensive models in its day.

Below is an illustration from a 1925 Rawlings catalog featuring the "Hack Wilson" glove with the Latina cross lace patent. it was priced just below the "Doak" model.

I had forgotten about this bottom-anchor grommet web glove but it made sense. The lacing pattern before this had no anchor at the crotch of the web. If one caught the ball in the cross webbing before it probably began to weaken the laces and eventually these break with time. Several makers besides Rawlings began using multiple cross hatch lacing up until the late 1930s. Greg is right in that the tunnel loop protections braced the webbing, hence one, two and three tunnel webs. I'm looking at photos from the recent Hunt Auction sale of Ted Williams material and notice a picture of Ted using a glove with criss cross lacing, probably from his first year.
Notice how well secured the bottom of the web is in these photos shown. And grommets helped secure the lacing.