Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I want a history lesson. I would like to see the progression of gloves, styles and makers from the early days to the present. Maybe a few gloves from each decade of the past century, and a catcher's mitt and/or first base mitt. Sure, I am getting that history lesson now as I read posts in this forum and enjoy the fantastic pics, but wouldn't it be cool if someone would put together "A Concise Pictorial History of the Evolution of the Baseball Glove" as one of the forums here?

Put together by another forum member last Fall.

Stockbuddy, please chime in.

If you'll send me your postal mail address, we provided couple of pages of the glove dating progression in our guides/books. I'll snail mail you some photocopies if you'd like.
Joe

I would love to have a copy ... sending a msg with my snail mail addy ... Thanks, guys!

Cowboy, I'll have a bunch of early glove photos roughly showing the evolution of gloves on my website if I can ever get it built. I'm shooting for a late July launch. It's kicking my butt.

Dave Cunningham has a nice book on fielder's glove web styles from the early days to the 50's. Also, Joe has always been more than generous about sending articles in this regard. I also have a ton of glove articles I have amassed over the years from any source I could obtain them from (mostly from Joe) but it's pretty complete. I have always prided myself on having a very thorough reference section. I can send you some reading material that should get you through the summer if you like. Also, if possible, I'm trying to have a reference section where visitors can download PDF's of all these articles. I don't know how to do it yet and don't know of the legalities.

JD

Hi Cowboy, Mike, JD and Joe,

The web styles of the fielder's gloves seem to help identify the different years that a glove may have come into being. While certain webs on gloves may have been revisited from time to time by glove companies as the years went by, overall it seems the webs help to date the old gloves as they evolved.

Many catchers mitts and basemen's mitts have very similar web styles to the fielder's gloves and I love the look of the old fielder's gloves the most so I did my book focusing on the evolution of the Fielders gloves and their web styles in hopes people would enjoy looking at the pics and learning about the evolutionary process of the gloves.. Using a shameless plug at this time, my book is on ebay right now and if you tell me you heard about the book on ebay I will discount it by 4.00. Being I am working towards a new book I am hoping to sell out the remaining books I have on hand, which there are not too many left in my supply. It describes and shows pictures of the various fielder's gloves and web styles up through a solid web and a string laced between the fingers that came into being in the late 40's early 50's. It also has great glove pics that were shared by Jim Daniel(ebbets55 on this thread) and Rob Mucha(Glove Crazy) and to top it off Joe Phillips (softball66 (who writes the Glove Collector Newletter for the hobby) reviewed the guide. Wonderful guys.

There are some great glovers on this forum and they hold a wealth of info about the hobby. I have put my energy into the book and want to continue a bit further with this next book. It took more hours than I ever expected and the Guys certainly spent their time and efforts to hammer out the book and my printer does not print for free, but I have had glovers and non-glovers who have told me they enjoy the book and I am hoping it will even promote the hobby a bit further. Might be worth checking out.

I have ran across a glove that Joe Phillips has been helping me to identify and it looks like a "fielders mitt" I will try and figure out how to get some pics of it on our thread. I think I got very lucky in finding this one and will share the pics with the group..

JD, Joe believes it to be a fielder's Mitt from 1910.

Dave

Dave, I don't mind the shameless plug, just give us a little more info on where to buy, thanks

Hi mittmut,

If you or others are interested in "A Fielder's Dream Glove Collection" book you or others on the form can email me at cunninghamd1707@yahoo.com and give me your mailing address as to where to send the book. You can pay me using paypal (using the cunninghamd1707@yahoo.com and that one is my preferred method for payment) or you can make a personal check or money order out to Dave Cunningham and send it to:

Dave Cunningham
1707 Mary Lane
Olney, IL 62450

On ebay the book has been going for 24.95 + 1.85 shippng and handling. (I just placed a free shipping on the one on ebay) My newest book, when it comes out will likely be at that price. I am trying to keep the price there even though the next book will cost me more to make at the printer.

Just mention when you email me at the above email address that you heard about the book on the forum and I will sell the book for 21.00 with the shipping included. So, if you do paypal just send me 21 even and your mailing address and I will send you the guide via USPS.

Thanks mittmutt.

Dave

Dave's book would be a fine addition to any glover's library. Full of great photos and information of unique gloves and web styles.

Deacon, Thanks for the kind words on the glove book. It was one of my goals when I did the book that people could enjoy the pictures of the old gloves and learn a little bit about the history of the fielders gloves as well. There are folks both within and outside of our forum thread who have nicer gloves (nicer quality and high end leathers with great player endorsements) than some of mine in the book, but I managed to have some cool gloves and some very unusual gloves to share in the book as well. Also, I did have the good forturne of Rob and Jim sharing their glove pics with me for use within the book and their leathers were outstanding. And of course Joe Phillips expertise was very much appreciated. Deacon, thanks again for sharing your thoughts on the book.

Dave

I have certainly gained some great knowledge from this guide. It's a Glove Collector "MUST HAVE".

Ask me about the Glove-Works sell down...


Mike
www.glove-works.com

Here is a project that I started about a yaer ago and I'm still working on it. One day I'll get it done.
Hope this helps -Steven

http://keymancollectibles.com/baseballgloves.htm

Steven,

Nice job on the website. It is pretty cool what all can be done with the web. There are some great baseball glove websites and I believe ebbets55 will be working on one as well. Thanks for sharing.

Dave