Early Mantle Gambles Hiawatha

[drasher81]

I was wondering if anyone has ever seen one of these, I picked it up on Ebay in a lot of garbage gloves with a $30 buy it now. It is in amazing shape and has a HUGE old style Mantle Signature with tons of sliver. The glove itself is high quality with all leather piping and even a wrist adjustment in the back strap. I looked though the sourcebook but didnt see this one in there. Was this glove made before Mantle was signed by Rawlings? Any help would be great.

[Cowboy7130]

That is a great find!

[softball66]

Denkert made the pro masters. Nice mid size youth gloves and the early Mantle signature. Denkert's was one of the contracts Rawlings had Mantle break when he signed up with The Finest in The Field. Ford was another Yankee on the Denkert payroll along with some other Yanks. I had a nice Rowe Thompson Hardware Mantle made by Denkert; looked just like this one. Good pickup in a bunch of gloves.

[BretMan]

I saw the lot you're speaking of and noticed the early Mantle glove. The only thing that stopped me from going for it is that I already have one!

Yours is in a little bit better shape, especially in regards to the stampings and Mantle endorsement. The quality and size surprised me. I was expecting this glove to be a lower quality glove when I picked up mine on eBay. It is a large glove, a couple of notches up the quality ladder from the typical small kid-sized glove.

I had always assumed these were Denkert-made gloves because of the distinct "Pro Master" stampings.