Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Does anyone know what year Rawlings started putting Mickey Mantle's new signature on their gloves? I think it was 1965 or 1966, but I'd like to know exactly when he started using his new signature.

the 1966 Rawlings catalog has the new signature and the 1963 catalog has the old one. I saw magazine ads for 1964 and 1965 and they showed gloves with the old signature.

It was during the XPG 6 years. I have one with the old, more straight signature and another with his looping signature. Don't have my source book next to me so the years escape me.

Chris

Yeah, I have one XPG6 with the fancy signature and another XPG6 with a more plain signature. That's why I was curious about when his signature changed. Like 'mikesglove' said a couple of posts ago, the signature probably changed around 1965 or 1966.

I've narrowed it down to somewhere in the '64 to '65 time frame based on particular glove models having the old sig compared with the newer, loop, sig. Here's an old thread with some insight.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4366&p=22079&hilit=Mantle+signature#p22079

Bob at Rawlings says 1964.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2271&p=10690&hilit=Mantle+signature#p10690

Another suggesting the new sig in 1965.

viewtopic.php?f=10&t=802&p=3081&hilit=Mantle+signature#p3081

Here is a 1965 Rawlings catalog currently on ebay.

Here is a 1964 Rawlings catalog.

Mantle's signature has an interesting history, some of it known.
Elmer Blasco, then Rawlings Promotion Director, claimed that Mantle initial signature was so bad that it couldn't be used and that a secretary at Rawlings emulated it for the stamping dies.
Now in that 64-65 period perhaps Mantle, after signing so many items, had developed a smooth and identifiable signature and Rawlings went for his new penmanship. There is always an "overlap" period of perhaps a few months where old signature stampings, other stampings (such as the Rawlings HOH Bull), patches are changed out. Productions on new models for the following year often go into production during the end of the preceding year.