Two pitching greats with King Patents.

[okdoak]

Hope you can see the grommets and lace in the scans I took. "Iron Man" Joe McGinnity with what has to be a very early one and Walter Johnson.

[mikesglove]

the Joe McGinnity glove looks to be an early buckle back model also. Would love to know the brand. Never have seen a laced wrist model with a buckle and strap like that.

[mikesglove]

Here is a pic of a Ted Kennedy brand "pita pocket" mitt from JD's site that looks similar to the McGinnity glove as far as the laced opening and buckle back features.

[okdoak]

Aside from the pita pocket, I think that's a good match for the Iron Man's glove. Also just realized that McGinnity retired after the 1908 season, so his glove (and the Kennedy glove?) predate the actual King Patent. I see that there is a Google Patents now that's apart from the regular search engine and looked at the Charles M. King patent. He applied for it in July of '09 and it was granted in June '10. So technically I guess I'm incorrect in calling it a King Patent. There are a lot of glove patents with the drawings listed on the Google site.

[mikesglove]

There is a paragraph in a 1902 issue of "Sporting Life" that advertises custom made gloves for professional ball players from Ted Kennedy for half their usual price.

[mikesglove]

Here is an excerpt from a 1905 Ted Kennedy Glove Co. advertisement listing ballplayers using his gloves and mitts. Joe McGinnity is listed first.


Ted Kennedy died at the age of 42 in 1907. This is conjecture on my part but it is possible that Charles King was the inventor of the laced wrist and licensed its use to Kennedy prior to 1907. After Kennedy's death and the end of the Kennedy Glove Co., King may have approached A.G. Spalding and sold his patent circa 1908-1909. Some of Kennedy's gloves and mitts were listed in Spaldings early 1890's sales flyers. They were very expensive, $10 for a catchers mitt which was twice the price of similar mitts sold by Spalding. It is no wonder that Kennedy had half price sales as stated in my earlier post. Kennedy Glove Co. really was a specialty and custom shop. This cool ad states that a ball player can trace the outline of his hand on paper and send it in and Kennedy would make a glove to fit.

[okdoak]

Great information, Mike. Thanks for posting it! That's interesting about the Joe McGinnity connection and possibly Charles King, too. I couldn't remember if there was a graphic of his King Patent drawing on the forum, so I added this one. The odd thing about Google Patents is that many of them just don't seem to be download friendly. My daughter showed me how to capture the image using Screenshot, whatever that is.

[mikesglove]

The patent drawings are PNG files. They can be tricky in that format. I save them onto my computer and then crop and convert them to JPG files through Google Picasa. I have never used Screenshot but maybe it does everything in one step.

[okdoak]

I still have to crop them (daughter showed me how using Photoshop). Glad that she had Mac's at her grade school and grew up with computers. I'd never be able to figure this stuff out myself.

[mikesglove]

This page from a 1905 ted Kennedy brochure describes a glove with a patented laced lining that can be taken out of the glove. It sounds like the King patent but precedes it by 5 years. Since it is described as patented, there would need to be a record in the patent office.


The only patent applicable is the 1905 J.A. Peach patent shown below. I thought the snap closure was integral with the patent but the patent states any suitable means could be used to connect the inner and outer glove, including lacing.


The Peach glove below has the snap buttons but looks similar to the Joe McGinnity glove with the buckle and strap positioned well up in the wrist opening.

[vintagebrett]

Here are two tidbits of information on Ted Kennedy mitts from issues of the Sporting Goods Dealer in 1900:

"Ted A. Kennedy's improved base ball mitts and gloves are now made by the Peoria Tent and Awning Co., of Peoria, Ill., who have every facility for turning out first class goods. They are all made under the direct supervision of Mr. Kennedy, which in itself is an assurance of their high quality, as he was the original inventor of the base ball mitt and has been making such goods the greater part of his life. The full line of Kennedy mitts and gloves is original and entirely different from any other line of such goods. The catchers mitts are entirely thumbless, as is also the basemen's and fielder's mitts, and all have a deep pocket which aids materially in holding the ball after it is caught. A pitcher's blind and fielding mitt is another of the novelties of this line, all of which is described and illustrated in their twenty four page catalogue, a copy of which can be had of the above firm for the asking. Every dealer should investigate this line as it contains new features."

[mikesglove]

I enlarged the photo so it could be read


Some new patents for full round mitts came about in the late 1890's. Jerry's Victorian embellished mitt is a good example of one. I like Kennedy's self promotion, such as "The Father of the Mitt" and "Ted Kennedy's High Art Sporting Goods". He moved back to his home town of Peoria after his playing career so the Peoria Tent and Awning Co. makes sense since they were local and willing to contract for his sporting goods. Kennedy soon moved to St.Louis and touted that he was the only sporting goods manufacturer in town. He predated Rawlings by a couple of years. Kennedy became successful in a side business as a furrier and made enough money to show interest in buying a baseball team. It is pretty clear Kennedy's laced wrist models predated Spalding by a number of years. Kennedy eventually sold his patents to A.G. Spalding which may explain how the Spalding King patent came to be. Kennedy died at the age of 42 in 1907.

[mikesglove]

While in St. Louis, Kennedy organized a baseball school in addition to his glove factory. Below is an ad for the school.


He also issued a booklet on how to pitch the curve ball. Below is a vintage cyanotype of Kennedy and his "submarine" pitch. He had to adopt the underhand motion later in his career because he developed a "dead arm" from being overused by his ball clubs.


Below is a cyanotype of the so called "pita" fielders glove/mitt that Kennedy manufactured to compliment his full round catchers mitt.

[mikesglove]

Below is a glove pattern photo of the Ted Kennedy patent lace glove circa 1905-07. This is the model that Joe McGinnity used during the 1905 season.
http://www.baseballglovecollector.com has a portfolio of Ted Kennedy ads and photos from 1907. Check it out in the glove catalog section, it's really interesting.


Below are two photos of McGinnity with the glove 1n 1905.