Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't go out searching for this particular mitt. I spotted it a few days ago and decided it was just too nice to pass on. So, I threw a little bid on it and won it last night. This is a top-of-the-line mitt from 1965 (Model #42-705). It sold for $44.50 which was about as much, give or take a couple bucks, as you could spend on a catcher's mitt back then. The Wilson A2400 and the Rawlings RL were only very slightly higher priced. Anyway, I tend to be interested in glove design and surely this one has a lot to offer in that department. Looks like it just might clean up nicely as well.

Mike,definitely an odd duck Rawlings was making Spalding gloves in that year and this was the FP5 (five pads / four laced breaks) introduced evidently in 1964 for Rawlings.Here's the description Rawlings used>>
"FB5 Professional Sensation new mitt, featuring two new innovations in catchers mitt design. . .the Spiral Top Speed Trap web and the Flex-O-Matic palm both similar to the fielders glove and first base mitt versions of the same name." Listed top-of-the line at $44.00 over the HOH. So, you had this in Rawlings line from 1964 to 1966. Didn't see it in 1967. Basis appears to be the "flex-O-Matic" idea of multiple vertical lacings and breaks.

Thanks for all that, Joe. Yes indeed, this is clearly one of those Rawlings made Spalding gloves. Thinking of the Roger Maris and Jim Bouton Personal models from this same era, there's something special about these gloves. Spalding, in this instance, wound up calling the padding arrangement the "Multi Flex Pad" and the web a "Split Action Web". Funny how Spalding's names for these features resemble, but are never the same as the names Rawlings used for there own lablel.
This particular glove is in pretty nice shape and also has the loose feel of a glove that's caught a ton of games. Here's pics.

Mike