Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Sometimes you just get lucky. Here's one from a Play It Again store.
Bob C. was right about the RBG36 being a great all around glove and
though not HOH, marvelous to the hand and one of Rawlings most popular
glove models of the last half century. Better name than Jr.s. Well I would
prefer it over the Dale Murphy, also a great, though unsung player.

Joe,
I believe that glove is the most popular softball glove. It is the one that I see most frequently.

Nice find.

-GG

I have some interest in RBG36 gloves, for the following reasons:

1. the fact that my favorite 80's player was Dale Murphy (unsung is an understatement!), and the Dale Murphy RBG36 may have been the most widely sold Rawlings of all time. They pop up on ebay almost daily, so I am always perusing them.

2. as a high school coach in rural Texas, many of my players used more modern RBG36's and RBG36B's, with the Ken Griffey endorsement. The 12" and 12 1/2" were all-around, "generic" gloves that could be used at numerous positions. In fact, two of my players "inherited" RBG36 models from their older sisters who had played softball on the school team, and in rural Texas, "if it was good enough for Sis, then it's good enough for Bubba."

3. My son chose an RBG36 as his "pitcher's glove" last year when he needed a glove in a hurry, while he was breaking in a new Mizuno. (It lasted two games and a bullpen session; it folded over backwards on a hard throw from the catcher.)

In my experience, the RBG36 is an easily broken-in, too easily broken glove. It was because of several failures of RBG36's on my high school team that I began to research better gloves for my players, which led me to ebay, which led me to glove forums, which led me here ....

In a separate thread last year about my OR 520 Dale Murphy gloves (RBG36 clones, I believe) I lamented the fact that the RBG36 has gone downhill the past few years. Several of the forum took exception to my comment, saying that the RBG36 was one of the best workhorse gloves in recent glove history (my wording here), and a bunch of the active players in this forum said they had a trusted RBG36 in their warbags today, either as a gamer or a backup.

I was surprised.

Then, I consulted the Source. According to the Catalog Source book, the RBG36 during the mid-80's was a mid-priced, Murphy-endorsed glove that was probably of higher quality than the modern department store gloves that my kids were buying and using. AND I noticed that during a couple of years, the RBG 36 had two models available with two different endorsers, Murphy and Ripken, I believe, with one being much less expensive than the other.

This then, is probably the answer to my personal RBG36 puzzle. Why had so many people sworn by this glove for so long, when I thought it was so shabby? Probably because the gloves being lauded were the higher-end, older gloves that were better than the newer ones. My bet is that your mid-80's, $75 RBG36 is a better glove than my son's 2006 $29 Academy special.

JOE - that is a beautiful glove. I can tell from the picture that the leather is firm and uniform, and that the glove is in pretty good shape, unlike the flimsy, mustard yellow glove that is sitting in the bottom of my son's closet!

Cowboy: Dale shoulda got a good nod from the Hall. But alas, the Braves just didn't have it much when he was there. Timing was bad. He WAS a PLAYER!
I remember seeing all those 36s in Wal Mart everytime I went in there in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Now having that RBG glove bent back like on your son's experience, makes me wonder how I played 12 years of serious softball with a Rawlings XFCB17. Maybe because I didn't know any better! When I bought it in 1973, I thought "man is this a lot of money for a baseball, err. softball glove." After I retired it though, I got Brooksy to sign it. And that couldn't have been more fun. And Funny because he signed a heart of the hide billfold for me at the same time. Yep, heart of the hide leather Howween wallet. Another gimmick for the men.
Isn't it funny how some gloves will break down, same model, and others don't. Do we think it's the players or is it just a funky catch that distorts the glove.

That was my first 'real' glove....bought it at 13 and it was trashed by 16.

You aren't kidding about comfortable though.

Only about $35 at a Sam's Club.

Wow-- I had no idea that everyone was a fan of these gloves. I'll have to try and post pictures of mine as soon as I get it from my parents' house. I got it in 1990 and it's still going strong... although the glove conformed to a slightly smaller-handed version of myself... hahaha

We owned the world with the first RBG 36's but as the world begin to copy them they always went a little cheaper to try for some of our business, so as we had to hold price to try and keep you guys out R(someting or other) by the famous glove company Rowlings or what ever,To do that you have to change something and it always starts by removing the leather from the lining a little at a time, well there goes the ole durability. So like glove makers the older the better (Man I must be about to the top by now)
Bob aka Docglov

One of my son's baseball teammates has an RBG36 Ken Griffey that he has used for seven years: Little League, summer league, All-stars, Junior League, All-stars, Senior League, All Stars, two years of high school baseball, and two high school age summer leagues. Third base, outfield, pitcher, second base and first base, and he hardly ever mis-handles a ball. He brags about his glove all the time. He never does anything special to take care of it, but it has lasted all those years and all those games and it has never let him down.

If I could get my hands on an 88 or 89 Dale Murphy ... well then ....

Check out the RBG36 Griffey Jr. I just listed on Ebay. It still has the original cloth price tag.I would give you the link, but I can't do it. Like Brett's dad

hey doc, who's brilliant idea was it to start using the nuclear bomb resistant vinyl piping?

a stroke of genius

i loved the way it left chafe marks and scratches on my wrist over time