Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

A ball player with his catchers gear circa 1910. It looks like he's wearing an inflatable chest protector. Love the high top cleats. The catchers mitt is first rate. It looks like there is a reinforced outer edge piping. I have seen a couple examples like this. The "Decker Finger Guard" was one of the widely used inventions but there were other innovations, some as simple as using thicker leather at the perimeter edge, and other complex variations such as wire reinforcement inside the rolled piping(Slomka), wire reinforcement in the mitt itself(Ted Kennedy) and a riveted hard rubber banding inside the top of the mitt(Jason Draper).

Interestingly, he's wearing football cleats in that picture.

Looking back a page to the trio of young men posted by Mike-- I'd like to see the buttons they are displaying on their uniforms. The buttons appear to be added on, as they are in different locations on each player's uniform. Any ideas of what image was on the buttons?

Ken

The original image of the three ball players was found on the internet and low resolution, about 800 X 600 pixels, not nearly enough to show those details with any clarity. I never saw those pin backs on the uniforms till you mentioned it. the player in the middle has one that contains a portrait of someone. I posted a photo below. I can't make out anything else. Nice observation though as was William's about the football cleats. I didn't catch that one either. The high tops seemed cool but unusual. Now I know why.

Hal Schumacher in the 1930's with a three finger D&M model. He was a long time D&M endorser.


Carl Hubbel in 1928 with a nice looking Goldsmith buckle back model. it has the fully sewn and lined buckle strap that Goldsmith used on their best gloves.


Photo below from 1942. Hal Schumacher on the left with a D&M/Goldsmith glove with the trademark H-webbing and Carl Hubbel with the ultra cool Rawling's rolled lace web model.

Bill Lee of the Cubs was a long time Dubow Sporting Goods endorser. It seems he also used that brand as his game glove. The late 1930's photo below shows Lee with a nice buckle back model with the distinctive diamond shape stitching that Dubow used to attach the buckle straps. Note also the white athletic tape wrapped around the trap lace webbing


The 1942 photo below shows Lee with an updated Dubow model, their top of the line triple tunnel loop web glove with the patent Dubow out seams on the back of the finger stalls. Cool!

Will "The Thrill" in his last year in the majors sporting a really nice PRODC base mitt. It was a successor to the classic 60's DCT model. Weird to see Clark in a Cardinals uniform and not the orange and black.



Speaking of the orange and black, here is a Mizuno glove given the full treatment with a nylon para cord relacing. Perfect for a Giants fan to bring to the ball park.

Yogi Berra in the center circa 1956 with an unusual Spalding "Turtle Back" model sporting a rolled lace web. You can see the number "8" on the mitt.



The Yankee outfield circa 1960. Berra on the left with a Spalding "TraPocket", Mantle with a Rawlings "Trapeze" and Maris with his Spalding V-anchored web model.

The Yankee outfield circa 1963. Tom Tresh and Mantle with their custom H-web Rawlings gloves and Maris with his trusty Spalding. Tresh opened up the finger lacing into a real fly catcher.

Here are some cool pictures from a Rawlings Roundup magazine from 1950. I'm going to make a PDF of the whole magazine and put it in JD's library - it's definitely worth checking out. First up, Harry Latina and Connie Mack

Harry and Rolly Latina with Johnny Groth

Pepper Martin and Harry Latina

Harry Latina with Eddie Joost and Bob Dillinger

Red Rolfe and Harry Latina

Rolly Latina doing some lacework