Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

I've been called to sub in a softball league at 1st base (all 5' -4 1/2" of me). I thought that I should "open up" the old PRO-T and make it a black hole...









form v. function

Glove abuse!

I don't think that is glove abuse ... I think that is kind of a cool mod for softball. I never would have thought of doing that!

its ok if I run this by Rawlings and take credit for it isn't it ha does look good thought

doc

Being around a lot of softball players, this glove "design" would fit right in with the gloves people use around here.

I've seen some big gloves. 15" and what looked like 2 feet wide. "Apple Baskets" if you will.


I do like the way the web wraps around the 12" ball.

OK, I am leaning towards the glove abuse angle on this one. I think you need to get yourself a nice Nokona N80 and scoop to your hearts content. Sorry but I dont have a PRO-T so there is more than a little bit of jealousy going on, I hate to see the lines of a classic messed up like that even though it is wonderfully functional for softball.

I want to thank you for this. I undid one of the lace crossovers to form a bigger pocket for softball. Its perfect now and it would've never happened if it wasn't for this post. Although I wonder if I could just buy a longer lace and make the crossovers bigger.

ha, i knew it would ruffle the feathers of more than a few of the glove "purists" in the forum. believe me, i'm as much of a "traditionalist" as anyone. but when the body no longer functions like a 20 y/o, you have to do whatever it takes to over come the old age

alicia, i thought about using longer lace on the trapeze section but i didn't want to have to break in the new lace and it was an impulsive last minute quick fix. i didn't use the traditional lace pattern, i tried a "meet-in-middle" sort of looping lace pattern (the laces do shift though)

i used the traditional method of measuring the length of the glove (forefinger to heel) and much to my dismay, the catalogued 12.75" Pro-T actually measured a paltry 12.00"

anybody else have a bigger pro-T?

damn...that glove looks like it'll eat u alive! i'm all for modifying the glove to help performance on the field...you see people do it all the time when they bend the thumb and pinkie outward and push the other fingers in

before the modification, the glove caught softballs but without much fanfare. now that i've "opened it up", softballs make that cool "pop" when you catch it just right in the pocket.

i like that sound (and the guy who threw it thinks he really burned it in there)

I am a St. Louis Cardinal fan and remember back in 1957 or 1958 that first baseman Joe Cunningham had a similar alteration to his Rawlings trapper first base mit with the web lacing starting about half way up the web. It wasn't nearly as enlarged, of course, or a hard-hit ball might have made it through the opening.