Game used gloves are not among my favorite collectibles, and I concur with Mr. Mitt. Hard to prove and in some cases, virtually impossible to prove, especially the further back in time one goes.
I agree with everyone's points previously posted. I've only helped a couple of companies with game used opinions, Heritage being one of them. I've kept fairly extensive records on previous game used glove sales. I own one game-used glove, that's all, and it's a post career glove.
Gamer bats are much easier to track because virtually 75% or more of the MLP bats I would guess come from Hillerich & Bradsby which archives extensive records of orders from the players etc. Uniforms
are fairly easy to track because of tagging etc and in some cases, exemplars and factory records. Not so with gloves which can, besides Rawlings, come from various other manufacturers with little or no record keeping of delivery or transactions.
When I was asked to offer an opinion on the Musial glove, a LOA from MEARS already existed on the mitt. As it turned out, MEARS had misdated the mitt to post 1951 but this glove had no web retainer which was required after 1950 the ML rule was passed on such construction. The Rawlings patch on the mitt was more suited to the 1940s than the 1950s too.
Had I been asked to "grade" this Musial glove I would not have given it high marks. I did not delve into the provenance of the mitt except to note that MEARS dated the glove into the early 1950s when the mitt's submitter wrote that the mitt was given to them in the late 1940s.
1. On Brett's point that 1943 had no endorser. That is true except Musial didn't play first base until 1946. By then McQuinn's name was on the T70RYs and T70s after that. The fact that his name was not on this glove, "might" have indicated that it was not, thusly, a retail glove. It is correct hand for Musial and Rawlings best first basemitt of the era, suitable for a ML Player.
2. On the photo, I did some internet searches without finding anything closely matching, also some Rawlings Roundups, personal photos and cards where Musial was using a glove (mostly fielders glove). I did have the picture Heritage discussed in that it was dated by Musial for 1948 against Pittsburgh. The scoreboard showed a 1946 date though. The picture just shows Musial at 1b but with nothing on the mitt that would have been shown a match even with a closeup of the palm side of the mitt had been available
3. Absence of a marker number on the mitt? Often marker uniform numbers will be put on players gloves so that players can distinguish between similar gloves by fellow players. This usually occurs predominantly with fielders gloves and less with catchers mitts and basemen mitts due to fewer players at the positions with specified mitts. There is no marker number on this mitt but this might be explained that Musial likely would have been the only left handed first baseman on the team and not need to distinguish his mitt. Dick Sisler and Nippy Jones for instance other regular first basemen of this time period on the Cardinals were right handed.
4. I did not write the auction's descriptive copy for the mitt which contains some hyperboles and the heading misguides calling the mitt a "fielders glove."
5. In my records of game used gloves, which is by no means complete, I find this to be the second Musial glove to make it to auction, the other being a glove Musial allegedly gave to an broadcast announcer and the glove had been bronzed.
6. Given the troubles MEARS has recently undergone with the Pete Maravich warmup jacket as has been posted on the game used forum and on the MEARS on site bulletin board, this may have weakened the interest in this Musial mitt.
In the end the potential customer must decide for himself, with the objective information provided, whether the item is what is is based on provenance or examination of the glove. In my efforts to make a determination of take the stance of a skeptic and try to disprove the purported belief.
I hope my reasoning here helps others who need information on game gloves if they need it and I certainly don't disagree with any of the previous posts written on this subject.
When I was at the live auction and watching the Rawlings Mantle poster I mistakenly wrote down $800 instead of $8000 on the sale price. But what a surprise that was.
When I was called in to review two gloves at Heritage before this auction with the Musial mitt being one of them, the other purported game used glove was that of Willie Keeler. Though it turned out to be for the wrong hand and didn't match up to being a top of the line glove. What was puzzling was the fact that we found photos of Keeler throwing with both left and right hands.
Any forum member can email me at
glovecollector@mac.com for further discussion.
TGC