Back in the day...When you played Pony league..

[jwoody]

13-14 years old...Summer of 1958, Our pony league was about 20 players if we were luckey,. we choose up side, We played our games on the high school field, I hated the 90 foot bases. Not much of a league..Played second base, had no arm, still used my 3 finger rawlings and wooden bats. One good thing we did play a couple of games against teams from other towns..

[jwoody]

ANYBODY PLAY PONY LEAGUE BASEBALL, ANY INTERESTING STORIES??

[skwid]

This isn't so much a Pony League story as it is a glove story.

The summer before my first Pony League season, my dad took us to the Rawlings outlet in Reading, Pa. This was back when it was in downtown Reading. That store was amazing. They had gloves in there we had never seen. It was the first time my brother and I had ever seen or heard of HOH gloves. My dad explained to us what made those special.

I fell in love with the bin of PRO-KLTAs, all BLEM gloves, but perfectly playable. The PRO-KOLTAs were black, with an orange target and two velcro straps on the back. I know velcro is pretty controversial around here, but for a Pony Leaguer, the velcro straps were about the coolest thing ever. The Rawlings patch on the glove was red, backed with metallic gold leather. Unfortunately, I didn't have the cash to make that purchase that day.

We went back to the store a couple of months later. My dad agreed to pay for one half if I paid the other. I thought that was a good deal. The store still had plenty of PRO-KLTAs in stock, and I spent an hour digging through the bin and trying on gloves before settling on one. It was, of course, a BLEM. The stamping and inking on the target of the glove was smeared, but otherwise the glove was great.

That next season, my first Pony League season, we won the league championship. I got very lucky during youth league in that I played on good teams with a good group of teammates and good coaches. That was the last season I played with my dad. He died before my first year of high school baseball.

The glove treated me well the next two seasons, but the pocket tore toward the end of that last summer. I was crushed. I talked to a Rawlings customer service rep, who suggested I send the glove (and a check for $50) to them for repair. I was thrilled Rawlings could do the work, so I eagerly agreed. A month later, the glove came back with a new palm, better than new. It was no longer a BLEM glove.

Unfortunately, a few years later, the pocket blew out again. It wasn't as bad as the first time, when the glove had an actual hole in it. I think it just needs some new stitching just below the Web. The leather is still in tact (and in great shape). I have been thinking about sending it off somewhere, but I'm not sure I want to let it out of my sight, and if it does need a new face, I'm not sure whether anyone would have access to those target pieces.