Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Do you know what is used to stuff a catcher's mitt ? Well, I don't either, but being a brand new gloveaholic, I tried to get the answer to that puzzling question and, well, I stopped before I got too far because what I saw horrified me. I don't know how old my glove is, probably dating back to the 1940s, but I guess someone must have done something pretty bad to its guts. What I saw looked like the end of the sleeve of a cotton sweater...

Does any one of you have a plausible answer to my discovery, I don't know, maybe manufacturers had to use their own clothes to stuff mitts during World War II because of limited fabric supplies ?

Or does this mean I got my hand on a vintage bad quality mitt ?

In case this might help, the only thing I can clearly make out on the glove is a series of numbers : 60-4268 on the back of the thumb, and the word "sporting" partly erased by use and time above the pocket.

Thanks for your help.

That model number and the partial stamping is enough to give a positive I.D. on the brand. This sounds like a Montgomery Ward mitt.

They used the "60-XXXX" pattern for their model numbers up through the 40's. The "60" prefix was dropped in the 50's.

The "Sporting" portion of the worn logo would have read "Sporting Goods" inside of a circle on the palm. In the center of the circle is a stylized "MW"- for "Montgomery Ward"- that looks like a series of slanted bars.

Most of the Montgomery Ward gloves were made by Rawlings, then stamped with the "MW" logo's for sale through the Montgomery Ward catalog.

The padding in the mitt is most likely felt or wool which was chopped up into fibers then molded into the desired shape. Sometimes the compressed material would be sewn into a cotton lining, sort of like a pillowcase. The padding would tend to have an appearance like a "ragland" material and that would tend to look like a ragland sweater.

Thanks again ! Is there anything you don't know about baseball gloves ?! Your knowledge on the subject is truly amazing, I tell you !

I got the impression from what I read on the Internet that Montgomery Ward was a kind of wholesaler of sporting goods. And since, as you said, Rawlings made mitts for them, does this mean they are lower quality mitts?

One last question, when I typed the model number 60-4268 in the google query box, I found references to Mickey Owen (from the Brooklyn Dodgers of the early 1940s as you probably know), but I wasn't able to verify whether the glove had been endorsed by him or not. Is there any way to know that for sure ? Maybe in that wonderful glove catalogue source book of yours ?

Unfortunately, once the stampings are worn off they are pretty much lost. Sometimes cleaning and conditioning the leather will make them faintly readable. But once they're gone, they're gone, and making a positive I.D. becomes an educated guess.

Making identification even tougher is the fact that the catalog data for Montgomery Ward is fairly incomplete- certainly not as well-documented as the data from major sporting goods companies such as Rawlings or Wilson, where nearly their entire history has been compiled.

While M.W. sold gloves over about a sixty year period, information has been published for only a half-dozen of those years. (Perhaps more in the newly released Catalog Source Book, which I don't yet have.) No Owen model is listed as being sold during the few available years.

By the way, M.W. was a retailer of many goods- household appliances, clothing, automotive accessories- sold through catalog mail order, similar to the way that the Sears and Roebuck catalog operated. They were just a little bit before my time, so I don't recall if they had actual "brick and mortar" retail outlets.

Back to your mitt. This much we know: The model number definitely matches the pattern used on Montgomery Ward models. Rawlings produced many of their gloves. Mickey Owen was a Rawlings glove endorser between the late 1930's and mid-1940's and many of the Rawlings endorsers would pop up on the Ward gloves.

All of which is compelling evidence that your mitt might be the Owen model. But there is one more piece of evidence that just about seals the deal.

Another handy tool for glove collectors is a publication called "The Player Autograph Baseball Glove Finder". This book compiles both the cataloged gloves models for an individual player, as well as a list of models that have not been listed in a manufacturers catalog- ie: "found" models reported by glove collectors.

Right there under "Owen, Mickey" you will find that among the "found" models is an Owen-endorsed mitt from Montgomery Ward, bearing a model number of 60-4268!
Put all that together and it is most likely that your mitt is indeed a Mickey Owen model, even without a clearly stamped endorsement to make a positive I.D.

Thank you so much Bret! Once again, it's amazing how much you know about gloves. Are you working in the trade or is it just some passion you've had for many years? It's fascinating, really. So now I know how old my catcher's mitt is, a bit older than my dad that is

Thank you for the kind words!

Glove collecting is a passionate hobby of mine, as are baseball and softball in general. When I'm not working on gloves, I can usually be found either playing, coaching or umpiring a game.

Over the years I've amassed every piece of historical information and reference material I can get my hands on. Plus, after collecting, restoring, buying and selling hundreds of gloves over the years I have a pretty fair working knowledge to draw upon.

But by no means do I "know it all". Through forums like this one you can always learn something new and that is part of the fun!