Stan the Man

[okdoak]

Nice! Love the TG12. And Spalding's version of it too, their Whitey Ford PM. I have a Spalding Rocky Colavito model that Kenny restored years ago. He was a true craftsman. I was sad to hear that he passed away awhile back.

[mikesglove]

here is another photo of Musial during spring training in the early 1960's. I think Rawling's designer Harry Latina is in the right background. The glove at Musial's foot has got one strange web.


Below is a reorientation of the photo to get a clearer sense of the webbing. It looks like a prototype X-web glove Rawlings was experimenting with prior to introducing the "Double X Web" models or the "Big Wheel" web. Too bad the hat is there. I would love to see what the whole web looked like.

Here is a 1967 spring training photo of Cardinals players. Mike Shannon has a glove like the Musial experimental criss cross web model above. No better place for Rawlings to access the success or failure of their designs than spring training.


The criss cross web eventually found its way into a variety of softball gloves.

Fly Trap I


The Gripper.

[mikesglove]

Stan Musial with Harry Latina on the right introducing the "Stan the Man" line of Rawlings gloves in the 1950's.




After his playing career, Musial teamed up with business partner Dick Zitzmann to form Stan The Man Inc. They had offices in a business park in St. Louis. They contracted with various companies to manufacture a line of baseball equipment, most of them imports. Musial would come into the offices regularly to autograph items for sale. The business closed in 2015.

Below is a super rare 1960's USA Red Schoedienst H-web model glove made for Stan the Man Inc. It sold on ebay for a ridiculously low $39.