How I spent my Summer Vacation...

[BretMan]

Just got back from a summer vacation that took me from Ohio through West Viginia, Virginia and down to Cape Fear in North Carolina. Along the way, I had the chance to hit about a dozen antique malls or shops and managed to bring home a total of one new glove.

Even visiting a couple of large antique malls, each with hundreds of booths, the vintage gloves were hard to come by. I saw about two dozen early imports, such as Newport, TMC and a handfull of cheap gloves from the likes of Franklin or Regent. Nothing much to write home about.

But I did see a few unusual gloves and purchased one of them.

At an antique mall in Burlington, N.C. I found a very nice condition A2800 first base mitt, apparently a 70's model, made in the USA, for just $12...so I jumped on that one! This one will easily grade out as excellent condition with only a light cleaning and will likely be a keeper.

One small shop at Cape Fear, N.C. had a small grouping of vintage gloves, along with some uniform pieces, pennanats and bats. One glove was a Denkert Charlie Keller split finger, with three tunnel webs.

I've seen these on eBay before, but had never actually had one on my hand. Knowing that Denkert made many cheap, lower-quality gloves, I was surprised to see this glove was huge, with thick leather and quality construction. It also featured the thickest padding I can recall seeing on any old split finger. This glove was like a puffy pillow!

Unfortunately, one of the tunnel webs was missing, the leather piping around the wrist strap was deteriorated and the price tag was $60. A nice. big glove with a couple of flaws stopping it from being a keeper.

The same shop had a nice JC Higgins two-finger glove (like the Wilson "Ballhawk-3"), but it was also marked $60 and you could probably find one like it on eBay for much less (and I already have a couple of these in my collection).

Another glove of note, seen in the Winston-Salem area, was a near-mint condition Rawlings TM75 first base mitt, with a Marv Throneberry endorsement. This early 60's trapper was beautiful, and might have been of particular interest to a New York Mets collector (which I'm not), but the price was marked at $125, so I passed on that one.

One more to share: a mid-70's Rawlings with a a GJF10 model number, a Dave Concepcion endorsement and the unusual "star web" with the four cutouts in the webbing that form a sort of bellows effect.

I'm a Reds collector and have never seen this model before. It seems to have been produced only in 1976. This one was a little rough, with a missing patch and bad liner, or else I probably would have picked it up.

Even with a swing through four states, and visiting some mega-malls with hundreds of booths, the vintage glove pickings were pretty slim!

[fuzzydogg22]

Im glad to see I am not the only one who can't find good gloves in Virginia!

[baseball junkie]

I'm kind of a novice at this but I was wondering I have a Wilson A2802 1st baseman's mitt I've had since I was in high school.Is this the same as the A2800, only for lefties?I've seen other Wilson models that end with a 2 and was curious if they were akin to the righty model ending in 0,Like the A2000 model and the A2002.The 2802 is my favorite glove I own.I think it's from the mid 70's judging by when the guy I got it from would have been playing.I use it all the time at alumni games and when I'm coaching the kids in Little League.It's an awesome glove.

[BretMan]

That numbering seems to be common for Wilson. I have seen A2002 fielder's gloves that were simply left-handed A2000 models. The old Wilson catalogs do not list this distinction, but after looking at literally thousands of eBay auctions over the years and having seen a few such gloves, it seems to have been a common practice.

[leftygomez]

my 1958 wilson catolog list the A2800 ripper collins 1st base mitt as 2802 in a lefty. the top of the line 2801 as a 2803 in a lefty. the a2000 as 2002 in a lefty. all the gloves go up 2 digits in a lefty. so it holds true.