Where did you get your first glove?

[burker72]

My first real glove is long gone. I had gloves as a youngster but the first I could remember buying was before my first year of JV baseball. I went to Beloff's Athletic Store in Adams, NY. Without knowing much better, I bought a Wilson Tommy John model. I can't remember the model number, but I know I had no business playing third base with that glove. I didn't know any better at the time, but even if I did, if I talked to my Dad about a glove that cost more than $30 he would have told me I was nuts. So the Tommy John model was like fielding with a piece of tree bark. About seven years ago I started up with a Men's Baseball team here in Buffalo and took great satisfaction in playing with a different glove each week for a number of weeks. I finally settled on a Bob Turley TG24 model as my regular game - everyone that tried it on was jealous of that one. If only I had the TG24 back then...oh so many fewer errors.

[mushroomknob]

I really cant remember my very first glove.The first time I remember going to the local kmart with my dad.He bought me a rawlings Joe Rudi import model I thinkl.It was not a high grade glove but it felt really good on my hand at that time.I oiled and broke it in just the way a I wanted it.I made a lot of nice catches in center field with it in my JV years of ball.It all ended in the 10 grade I remember finishing practice one day and after getting dressed to go home I looked down on my gym bag and the glove was gone some one took my glove and I never saw it again!It really ticked my off at the time.I told a freind of mine that I needed a glove and he said he had a rawlings glove for sale all broken in for 5 bucks.it turned out to be a gary templton model I really liked the feel of and gave him the 5 bucks for it I still have it today.

[lnsmdrftr]

My first glove was an ancient 1940's style, not even sure of the maker because it was so dark and worn. In the fall of 1967, I was helping my Dad in Bel Air, Maryland. We moved a large antique bookcase for a man and while we were there I spied a Boog Powell Model SM6 glove at the local sporting goods store. I had saved enough money working that summer and took my cash to the store the next trip into Bel Air and bought the glove. My dad said the leather looked like what he used to see on fine saddles when he was young in Virginia. I think I paid about $22 for it then and had a corrupt uncle steal it from me not long after that. My folks felt bad about the loss and gave me enough for a new glove. I couldn't find a nice Rawlings and had to settle for Spalding Rick Monday model.

I found my purloined glove stored in a cache of my uncle's household goods while visiting his daughter at her home in 2002. She lived in a 19th century farmhouse with a female friend and they swore there was spiritual activity in the cellar. They asked me to go down there on my visit to her home and see what I thought. The only "spirit" I encountered was my long lost Rawlings in a wooden bushel basket. Gone for 34 long years and now a "ghost" of it's former beauty, it was worn and battered. I reappropriated it nonetheless and brought it home and gave it to my daughter as a keepsake.

[spedrunr]

hey lnsmdrftr, justice was served! you got your glove back. if you get a chance, post some pix of the gem?

[lnsmdrftr]

I'll take some the next time I visit my daughter and try and figure out how to post them. I have had trouble posting pictures on here though as you cannot copy and paste photos as you can in email. Can you offer any help? Thanks

[boz2730]

Funny story. My Dad bought my brother a beautiful A2000 in the 1970's and after his first team practice he accidently left it on the bleachers. When they got home my Dad asked, "Where is your new glove?" My brother said, "Oh no! I left it on the bleachers!" They raced back to the ball field but the glove was gone.

When they returned home my Dad made my brother go pick out a "switch" from the treeline. Man, he got it good. As his little brother I could hardly bare to watch; I felt so bad for him.

Meanwhile at the next baseball practice, the coach showed up and announced, "Who left their Wilson glove after practice last week???" He pulled my brother's A2000 out of the equipment bag.

Needless to say, my brother and I never again lost any of our belongings.

My frist glove was a Rawlings Fernando Valenzuela. Sadly, I don't have it anymore. I ditched it for a larger glove when I started highschool ball. I'd give anything to have it back. I tried to replace it with one I bought on ebay but it just doesn't have the same feel because I didn't break it in.

Man, your quote brings back two memories for me as well. I can still hear my Grandfather telling me numerous times to go out in the back yard and bring back a "switch" because I was in for a licking.

My first glove ever was actually a glove my Grandmother bought me when I was around 3 years old a rummage sale she was working with her church friends. It was an old school JC Higgins - Nelson Fox model. However, the glove that I say that started it all was my first modern style glove that my Father bought me at the local sporting goods store. It was a Rawlings RBG-88 Fernando Valenzuela model w/ a Fastback and Single Post Web. Kinda like the modern day PRO-6HF.

Matt

[ny7]

Got my first glove at a discount store called Shoppers Fair in Canton Ohio when I was 10.I helped a friend on his paper route and he paid me 50 cents a day 3 days a week,which was pretty good for 1967.I saved what I could after buying candy and baseball cards and finally one day after school my Dad took me there and let me pick one out. I was looking them over I asked about Clete Boyer and as my Dad was a huge Yankee fan he said Boyer was a great fielding thirdbaseman.That was enough for me so for the sum of $7.50 I bought a Trio Hollander Clete Boyer model which I still have today.It's a beater but still pretty much intact.A couple of years ago I found the exact same model on Ebay-I had been looking for about 5 years-and bought it for $36.Absolutely mint too.Hard to believe my beater looked so good 41 years ago.

[vintagebrett]

Here is a picture of me with my first glove - we figure this picture is from around 1981 when I was 3 or so. It's me with a Nokona glove, my dad with his Rawlings PRO-H.

[softball66]

The guy with the dark Braves shirt on looks like a heck of a ballplayer! What's on the cap?
And is that the Lucky Dog in the front foreground?

[spedrunr]

hey vintagebrett, that's awesome that your dad got you a nice nokona. his glove looks like a Pro 1.000 (conventional back?). the cap looks like a USC trojan(?) what a classic picture.

[MVALZ]

Love the pic! I noticed the same thing Ed...has the funky H web tie offs at the bottom of web. The 1.000 a rare one

[oldreliable]

Methinks I see a German Shorthaired Pointer in that photo. Is it one? I come from a family which has had three of those dogs, if that is indeed one. I guess it could be a similar breed. What great dogs, but man oh man, if you make them house dogs, you'd better let them out every hour or so, or else you'll have a lot of stuff that gets peed on.

That is a wonderful photo. And nice gloves too. A Nokona! I didn't even know about Nokona gloves until I was in my mid-twenties. Man, to have had a Nokona at that age. You must have been the king of the neighborhood. And then to have used an A2 after that, well, your Dad just knew what a boy really needs to grow up right!

My Dad really didn't care too much about baseball gloves; I do have to give him credit though--his knowledge of bamboo fly rods and arrowheads is top-notch. When I go home, I'll try to find that old Spalding Bando model which I blamed for all my woes. It's a good thing that I could hit back then. That old Bando glove got this thread started. I'd better rescue it. It really was a decent glove. I just couldn't field grounders at all.

I'll see if I can find my Dad's Little League glove as well -- a three-finger George Reach glove which my Grandfather bought him secondhand.

John

[mittmutt]

Here is a picture of me with my first real glove. The year is 1965 and I was 11. I made all-stars and this is my team. We were in inner city Salt Lake City.I am on the bottom row far left holding my glove on my lap. Only problem is, I don't remember what the glove was. I'm pretty sure it was a Rawlings and I sure wish I still had it. I do somehow still have that little trophy and I proudly display it on a shelf in my den with other items I've held onto for way too long.


By mittmutt at 2008-02-11

[wjr953]

My first glove was a hand me down from my older brother. A well-used, and man was it ever well-used Wilson (Rawlings?) "Dick Groat" model. This glove was so worn out you could hold it up to the light and read a newspaper through the palm. I started playing ball in pick-up games at 6 or 7 years old, with the CYO team that was affiliated with our local church. My brother and I used to spend many, many hours playing catch in the yard. I learned how to catch in order to save my own life. My brother's instructions to me were that each time I missed a throw (that he thought I should have caught), he would take a full step closer to me and the next throw would be even harder! I can remember him being no more than 15 feet from me, throwing a hard ball as fast as he could (he was 4 years older than me). So I learned to catch whatever he threw or I would get drilled. I learned to catch in no time at all. Of course with the Dick Groat "see thru" pocket, my catching hand would be bright, bright red after having a game of catch with my brother. Every time I see a Dick Groat glove, I am reminded of those days of playing catch in the front yard. My catching hand still twitches just thinking about it.

[MVALZ]

The Rawlings Groat LG 30....good quality glove