Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

This will be a group month - whoever wants to post is free to!

A nice 1920's Winchester catchers mitt sold for $316 on ebay. Solid construction, great intact cloth patch.

One of my favorites, an early 50's MacGregor 3 finger glove with reverse button wrist strap. Only thing missing is the "Spider Web". The GB23 "Richie Ashburn" model sold for $142 on ebay.

A nice 1930's D&M "Chuck Klein" model G92 sold for $330 on ebay. Near top of the line in its day, the glove features an interesting laced overlapping wrist strap which protected the cloth patch.

A rare "Jesse Haines" glove sold for $357 on ebay. The glove is in great condition with strong markings. It is possibly a Marathon Brand with a tunnel loop web and thumb seam protector.

A circa 1950 near mint MacGregor Goldsmith "Ewell Blackwell" model XL with original box sold for $204 on ebay. A top of the line glove in its day. Double laced fingers. A model not often seen in this sterling condition.

Wish the seller would have had a good picture of the back of that Blackwell glove. Don't remember seeing one with double laces before.
This fine looking Geo Reach Bruce Campbell went for $103.50. Quite a few Geo Reach gloves on ebay lately.

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Seller sent me this pic

I liked this one enough to get outbid in the last seconds. I'm thinking it might be an RFO. Any thoughts?

This is the back of the Reach glove above. I could make out part of the "Home Run Special" on the front, but it is very faintI am not sure about it being the RF0 model. My RF0 and the one pictured below have a much wider wrist strap. Maybe there are other RF0 styles. It could also be an RF1, RF2 or RF3. I am not familiar with all the "Babe Ruth" glove models.

I've had one with a wide strap and one with a narrow strap. That's indicative of different model years. One reason I think it might be an RFO is the way its''s constructed around the finger crotches. Looks pretty much the same as mine; built to last. On the other hand, the leather is completely different and the binding suggests an RF1(not that hefty rolled leather as on the RFO). I'd love to hear more about this particular glove.

There are three significant differences between the Ruth gloves shown above. The manufacturer, country of origin, and production date. The glove of the month example (whether an RFO, RF1 or RF2) was produced by Reach while the one with the white patch is a Spalding. We could debate the difference in manufacturers since they were both owned by Spalding. For our purpose, however, let's say they're different because the RF models were marketed under the Reach brand while the WW and MO models were marketed with Spalding. Second, Spaldings with white patches were Canadian made, not US. Third, the Canadian example was produced in the late 30's as opposed to USA made Spaldings with red patches which were made during Ruth's playing days. Besides, late 20's and early 30's models lacked the tunnel loop web, which the Canadian example has. Canadian Spalding MO's are much more plentiful than the earlier USA Spalding MO that was packaged with the ornate Ruth picture box (see my avatar). Back to the Reach. I'd rule out it being an RFO because of what Mike mentioned. RFO's had leather piping and super high quality leather. I'd guess it's an RF2 because even RF1's had thicker, rolled leather piping.

Here's JD's RF2. Seems similar. Binding (piping) is the same kind.

Remember Alex Brenner's great Glove CD from years ago? I was poking through it to see if I could get any pictures for the website. I came across this youth 1 inch web. It's a Regular Fellers RF52 Model. Great name. Any correlation to RF on these Ruth models?

JD

Speaking of RF2's - this one went for $1025

Looks like a nice one.