Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

The name of our newest member, RBG36, got me to thinking ... that particular Rawlings model is a fairly ubiquitous glove. Almost any church league softball team or high school baseball team will have at least one player using an RBG36 or an RBG36B.

I wonder ... how many of those have been sold since they were introduced? Is it the best selling glove of all time? If not, what is?

I realize that popularity does not always equate to quality, and in fact, the RBG36 models that I have seen in stores recently are several degrees inferior to the older models from the 80's and 90's. But there IS something to be said for longevity!

Rawlings began using the "RBG" model number designations in 1980 and the RBG36 carried the endorsement of Reggie Jackson. The same basic glove design goes back even further than that. The GJ36 Jackson model was sold in the mid-seventies.

You're right about the newer models- they are pretty low-quality. The older ones were fairly nice gloves, priced right in the middle of the Rawlings line-up. I would have to imagine that they have sold millions of these during such a long production run.

They certainly aren't rare collectibles, but the RBG36 has a special place for me. I have used one (and the off-shoot RSE36) on and off as a softball "gamer" for years, and my daughter even used one in her fastpitch playing days back in the 90's.

I have a book around here somewhere that claims the Dale Murphy version was the best selling glove of all time.

Yeah!!! Atta boy, Dale! Dale has always been one of my faves.

I wonder if the RSE designation signified "Special Edition." I know you can't tell a whole lot from ebay pictures, but it looks to me like the leather on the RSE models is a bit thicker, a bit sturdier ...

although I can't help but wonder if the proliferation and saturation of the market of the RBG36 Ken Griffey Jr. model may have overtaken ol' Dale .... probably by now anyway ...

Rawlings has a history of branding a few model numbers with the names of the "biggest" players at the time. The RBG36 has always been in the middle of the line in terms of price and has usually been stamped with a hot item player to attract the kids.

The RBG36 is popular because it is affordable, of good quality (the last and last) and are usually associated with a fan favorite player. A lot of these gloves are in bat bags across America.

In comparison, would the Wilson A1000 be similar?

It will be hard to dispute that the Bill Doak glove might be the best-selling glove of all time, 1921 to 1952. Although there were variations of the Doak, his name was on all of these.
We must recall that the gloves in the lower midded to low end youth gloves were probably the best sellers. From tracking company sales these gloves were the high volume producers. Rawlings and Wilson have been the big producers of gloves over the past 60 years so their low price name gloves will fill out best sellers over that period.
The glove finder book will show number of gloves found by our collectors from 1990 to 1997 or so. The glove finder was based on the "Advertised Price Index" produced by the Glove Collector, a very popular index before EBay.
We might divide this category into "Names" or "Models". Certain Ted Williams Wilson and Sears gloves were very popular but not the same model for the same year and the same for many more "Name" gloves though the models varied. I think a LOT of Mickey Mantle gloves were sold and probably the leader in just a name after the Doak.
I remember the Dale Murphy Rawlings gloves were sold in Wal Mart in the 1990s a big step in getting a lot of his model gloves on the market.
Ditto Rawlings made many Jackson gloves under two or three model listings. Just under a model prefix, the A2000s have left a lot of sporting goods shelves.

Are you aware of any poles or surveys which have been conducted to determine the make/model/player name of the first or favorite glove?