Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I see someone selling their fathers glove almost every week on ebay. Some of the stories are a little heartbreaking when the sale is to purchase Christmas presents for the sellers own children. Others sell the gloves to clean out the house. I feel lucky to have my fathers high school glove since my own high school gloves have been long gone for 40+ years. I wonder if other forum members have kept their father's old playing glove?

Rawlings model G60 from circa 1928.

Family gloves are the best kind. I have my dad's second glove from the 60's from when he was a little older. Sure wish he still had his first glove, a Nokona he remembers. Oh, I still need to kick his butt as well as my brother's for writing their names on it.

JD

I sent my dad the link to this thread and this is what he sent back. I just learned more about it after having it all these years. Very cool to me but don't mean to bore you guys with Daniel family history. I just wish I knew the histories or backgrounds of all my gloves.

Great thread Mike as this is a hot topic with me because I respond to a handful of inquiries a week about someone finding their dad's or grandfather's glove (already did twice today). I always tell them to keep it in the family if they can.

JD

From: Dave Daniel
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2011 3:36 PM
To: Jim Daniel
Subject: Re: Glove Forum Thread

cool ... i forgot (if i ever even knew) that you had that glove ... and that jeff used it too.

the story behind that glove ....

my brother darryl (your late uncle) had a part-time job somewhere (not sure where) as a janitor in the evenings. he found that glove at the place he worked (for the life of me i cannot remember where he worked) ... and gave it to me. (finders keepers .... ) .... i was about 15 ... in the 10th grade i think ... right around 1960. i didn't play organized bb then, but used it a lot in park and street pick-up games. it looked a lot better than my old three-fingered reddish nokona that my grandmother (willie lee daniel) bought me for my birthday when i was in elementary school (my birthday was nov. 30, her's was dec. 1 ... and she always took care of me. ha). she was a great dodgers fan and loved maury wills in particular in the early '60s and listened to every game on the radio back then.

darryl did not like sports of any kind. period. uncle del was an excellent athlete. he was a pitcher in little league and pretty good. his catcher was a kid named gail hopkins, who made it to the pros (white sox ... and others. google him) for a few years. del started tennis in high school and was all-city three years in a row in both singles and doubles. in the city of long beach, there was a great program with tournaments just about every weekend. the entries were divided into "A" (the best), "B" (above average) "C" (Average) and "D" novice. there were only 4 'A' players in long beach ... and he was one of them. he won tournaments all over southern california and became a teaching pro and owned a couple of tennis shops (you remember taking lessons from him ... julie? ...) you wouldn't know it now, but he was pretty good. (and he was a pro-level bowler, too. ask him about it some time.).

anyway, thanks for keeping a bit of daniel history alive.

Mike and JD,

I wish I had my Dad's old split finger glove and we have looked a lot of places but with no luck. If I ever found it it would be one of my best gloves regardless of its condition.

Dave

My Dad was born in the teens. I often think about his glove. He used it right through my High School years whenever we played catch. Lots of times, when I see a glove being auctioned that reminds me of his glove, I tend to go after it. If I had to say exactly what it was, what make and model, I'd really struggle. I can't even say for sure if it was a 1" web or a glove with some kind of laced web. In my mind's eye I always remember it a a big, heavily padded, dusty light gray split finger. He alway bought me Spalding gloves when I was a kid. I suspect his was a Spalding; probably Twenties. As an ten you old, back in 1960, I remember him standing at the other end of the front lawn catching my fastball again and again. Not a problem for Dad. As long as I wanted to fire away, he'd be there receiving and firing the ball back. About ten years later, when my Mom and Dad moved from our old house on Hoyt Street to the other side of town and a much newer house, somehow the glove went missing. Who knows, maybe if I still had that glove I wouldn't always be trying to enhance my memory of it with another one added to my collection.

Great topic, Mike, and funny thing I was just thinking about my Dad's glove recently. It was a light colored, faded 1930s model with laces where there may have been tunnel webs at one time. It always hung on a nail in my Grandparents' garage. I can't remember ever seeing my Dad put it on. My Dad was one of those "When I became a man, I put away my childish things" kind of guys. My brother and I would take it down and play catch with it when we were kids just to laugh at each other. Dad was left handed and my brother and I are both righties and it was a game to see who looked the dorkiest throwing lefty. I always won. One day, when I was in my teens, the glove was just gone. Grandma had sold it at one of her rummage sales. My Grandparents were extremely frugal; they lived thru two depressions, one following WW1 in Germany, and the Great Depression of the 1930s after they immigrated to America. So, I understand why they sold it and I doubt if my Dad missed it. Wish I had it now, though.

Great topic indeed!
My dad's glove, at least his last glove, was a Spalding 'Sal Bando' softball glove. It was a light tan, massive, softball glove.
I can't imagine that glove being anywhere in their house, though maybe one day it will turn up.

Referring to my own long lost glove, I relate to what JD has to say about brothers. I left for college and being the oldest, my glove was past down to my younger brothers and like Greg said, one day it was just gone. That is why when my father gave me his athletic equipment 30 years later it was like finding my own again. here is another mitt of my Dad's, a Spalding youth model. It is probably a little earlier than 1928 with his initials on the wrist strap along with a homemade strap guard.