by BretMan » February 29th, 2008, 1:34 am
Here's an A2000 story that is kind of cool.
A few weeks ago I got a phone call from a guy about repairing his late-70's vintage A2000. He had bought the glove in high school, heavily used it, and it had seen better days. The inner lining was shot, thumb loop ripped out, torn binding, broken laces...
I hated to tell him that most of those repairs were beyond my scope- I can handle any relace job or leather conditioning, but replacing linings and bindings is beyond what I can handle.
To help him out, I referred him to a couple of glove repairmen that can handle those jobs. One was Mike at Glove-Works, one was Kenny Jenkins.
Before he hung up, I asked him how he had found out about my gloves services. Turns out he was from Columbus and was looking to get this work done locally, so he Googled "glove repair Columbus Ohio" and my website had popped up.
Then he mentioned that he started playing in an indoor softball league the night before and had to use a cheap Mizuno glove that belonged to his daughter. I asked where he was playing and he told me at a place called Field Sports Ohio.
That got my attention- I am the umpire at Field Sports Ohio! Turns out that I was the umpire in this guy's game the day before he seached the internet, found my info and called me on the phone.
Small world, eh?
Earlier tonight, I see the guy walk into the softball place and he is carrying an obviously relaced Wilson A2000. I stop him and ask who he got to do the work for him. As it turns out, either Mike or Kenny (I forget which one) had referred him to "this guy in Ohio that used to work for Wilson".
Yep, none other than Earl Malone! He had just got the glove back a few days ago and it was absolutely, stunningly gorgeous! New lining, new binding, new thumb and pinky loops, new laces and even new Wilson patches.
Beautiful, beautiful glove and I got the chance to check out some of Mr. Malone's work up close and personal. As exciting as that was for me, the guy that owned the glove was totally thrilled with the results and promised that, "This time I'm going to take care of it!".