Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Another one for Brett's archives. Whitey Ford with the Sonnett "Lightning" model. Cool picture, great glove. New York Yankees pitcher Whitey Ford gives pointers to Johnny Ross of the Darmstadt Comets during the USAFE clinic at Wiesbaden. Ross was the winningest lefthander in the Germany Conference over the previous three years; at one point in 1965, he won five games within eight days.

Very cool picture - thanks for sharing!

Nice photo of Honus Wagner with a buckle back glove.


Rabbit Maranville with a nice grommet web glove circa 1925.


Two ball players with gloves stamped on the wrist strap, "Return To Prop. Equip. Department". Wonder if from a movie set.

A mid 1950's photo of Mickey Mantle with his Rawlings glove. Interesting reinforcing lacing above the wrist opening. This was common on Rawling's catchers mitts of the day but rare on a fielders glove. Only one example of all the Rawlings gloves on JD's site. Don't miss mantle bone rubbing his bat, priceless!


Phil Rizzuto clowning for the camera in 1954. His Rawlings glove also has the same reinforcing lacing.

mikesglove wrote:Two ball players with gloves stamped on the wrist strap, "Return To Prop. Equip. Department". Wonder if from a movie set.

I couldn't tell if you were joking or not. Do you not recognize these two "players"?

mikesglove wrote: Two ball players with gloves stamped on the wrist strap, "Return To Prop. Equip. Department". Wonder if from a movie set.

That is a photo of Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, owners of the Indians and Pirates, shot during spring training in 1947. Here's a clip from youtube....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRGGWM0SeSY

That's pretty funny. Didn't recognize them.

Press Photo with descriptor, dated Sept 27, 1932, of Alvin Crowder and Walter Johnson, Manager, Washington Senators. The descriptor reads: "CROWDER RETURNS WALTER JOHNSON'S "MAGIC" GLOVE. Alvin Crowder, Washington's star pitcher, did not look so good during the first few months of the campaign. In July he had won only 11 games and lost 13. Then he won a game and found out he had accidentally used Walter Johnson's glove. He decided it was good talisman and continued to use it. Since then Crowder has not lost a game. He finished the season with 26 wins, including 15 straight, and almost almost tied long standing record of 16 straight. Crowder (left), is shown returning the glove to Johnson, Manager of the team, at the end of the season in Washington, D.C. Walter promises to keep the glove for Crowder to use next year.".

Myles Thomas of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International league in 1926. Nice Rawlings "Bill Doak" model

The Brooks Robinson glove collection.


Some comments from Robinson about his gloves:
People always ask me how often I changed gloves during my playing days. I switched gloves about every 2 1/2 years. Once I got a glove broken
in, I used it until I couldn’t anymore. My game glove was used only during the game and not in practice. At practice, I would work on breaking
in a new glove for the next time I needed to switch.

MY GLOVE
I am asked about what type glove I use. I signed with Rawlings when I first started playing professionally,
and I used a Rawlings glove my whole career. I used different ones throughout my career. I didn't like them too big or too small.
I couldn't use a large glove, because I got the ball lost in there a couple times. I always preferred the H web because I could pull the
strings tighter to make the pocket smaller. If you had the one-piece web, the pocket seemed to get a little deeper every game that I used it.

The classic wound lace H-web model.


A sewn H-web being attended to.


Probably a TGP model.


From the HOF traveling exhibit. A closed web XPG6 "Mickey Mantle" model game used world series glove used by Robinson.

Knickerbockers or Excelsiors circa 1860. Umpire is in the top hat and tails, cool!


Circa 1880's ballplayer. Great uniform and workman's glove with opening slit on the side.

Glove photos from the Hall of Fame are tough to find because the officials want people to visit Cooperstown rather than do a virtual tour. I found a few samplings they release from their collection.

First is a Chico Carrasquel glove. The cloth patch is missing but easy to see it's a Nokona gamer.



Second is a Ty Cobb glove prior to restoration.


Here's the glove after restoration. I liked it better with the game use evident. It looks like the initial vertical slit to the pocket was intentional and the only damage was into the first and second finger stall. In my opinion the conservation company went to far.


Third is a Yogi Berra mitt from the late 1950's. It was a World Series gamer and shows a lot of repair work. It looks to have been taken apart and
reinforced with a lot of stitching in the pocket.

here's a cool photo Joe Phillips sent me. it's the Chicago Cubs infield of 1929; Les Bell, Woody English, Rogers Hornsby and Charlie Grimm. Joe thought it was a Wilson Sporting Goods promo photo. It really looks like it with the three finger model gloves front and center. I can just make out "Its a WIlson" on the wrist straps.

Great photo!

here's a couple more from the HOF archives. The mitt below is Sandy Koufax's high school base mitt. It's circa 1953 and a Rawlings "George McGuinn" model T70RY.


The glove below is a 1960-61 Rawlings "Herb Score" model XPG3. It was used by Koufax at a turning point in his career. He was ready to quit baseball at the end of the 1960 season and concentrate on his fledgling electronics business. One of the down sides of his being signed as a "bonus baby" at age 19 in 1954 was being thrust in to the major leagues with no minor league seasoning. It took its toll. Koufax decided to give it one more try in 1961. He was playing a "B" game during spring training and walked the first three batters on 12 pitches. Norm Sherry, his catcher, came out and advised Koufax to take a little off his pitches to improve accuracy. Koufax then retired the side and had a no hitter through 7 more innings. And the rest is history.