by Vindoggie » August 7th, 2007, 11:39 pm
It must be weird to be part of any manufacturing process when all of a sudden, without warning, the machinery comes to a screeching halt... The floor doesn't get swept, the trash doesn't get emptied, and everyone goes home for the last time... In baseball there have been many manufacturers that has happened to. I guess in baseball gloves during my lifetime, I think of Spalding & MacGregor. Imagine being there, working for them when someone killed the power for the last time. The finality of it. Hey, we can search ebay & find remnants of those times. We can recapture the era by sliding our hands into well-preserved leather reminders... I've read about Suntour, a leading Japanese bicycle component manufacturer that paved the way for, and was ultimately put out of business by a very aggressive company, Shimano. That time and the events leading up to the decline has been well documented. I'm sure there are still family members alive who could spill stories about Spalding & MacGregor that would captivate all of us who search for vintage gloves with mint labels... I think that's the part of this site that I yearn to find out more about. What mistakes were made, what did companies do to try and gasp for their last breath... How & why did Rawlings & Wilson persevere? That's what I want to know... (Why did the Rolling Stones outlast the Beatles? Musta' been Yoko!)
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Vindoggie on August 8th, 2007, 12:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.
To hell with the expression "You don't really know a man until you've walked a mile in his shoes" How about- "... until you've caught nine innings using his mitt!" A bit more accurate, don't you think?