A Glove I wish I had ... but I don't know what it is!
Posted: February 25th, 2007, 11:19 pmWARNING - Entering the Realm of Middle-aged Memory
When I was in Little League (early 70's: flannel unis, wooden light poles, chicken wire fencing, etc.), my parents bought me a small leather glove. It was entirely TOO small, even by a child's standards. The ball was larger than the pocket of my glove. Only recently have I realized that my dad bought the first child's glove he found that looked like his glove from the 1950's (a glove which, I am convinced, he bought in the 1930's. I called it the "little sofa pillow style."). Of course, all my other friends had newer-style, "shovel-shape" gloves which made it much easier to catch the ball. One of these captured my imagination, though not my memory. I remember my best friend showing it to me when he first got it. It was a beautiful, caramel brown leather, with a truly unique pocket. I remember it as a "black star" web. The brown leather web was cut open in an "x" pattern and stretched open, forming a cup shape. In the resulting hole was sewn a patch of black leather. The wide opening in the center tapered to four points at the edge of the web; thus was formed the "black star." I can ALMOST remember a blue Spalding insignia patch below the back of the thumb ... but almost only counts in horseshoes and high school strike zones.
I would have fought, injured, maimed and crippled someone for one of those gloves, but I would not hurt my parent's feelings by asking them to buy me one to replace the glove they bought me. So, to this day, it is something I wish I had but never got, even though I don't remember exactly what it was!
Do any of you have any idea what I might be looking for? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
When I was in Little League (early 70's: flannel unis, wooden light poles, chicken wire fencing, etc.), my parents bought me a small leather glove. It was entirely TOO small, even by a child's standards. The ball was larger than the pocket of my glove. Only recently have I realized that my dad bought the first child's glove he found that looked like his glove from the 1950's (a glove which, I am convinced, he bought in the 1930's. I called it the "little sofa pillow style."). Of course, all my other friends had newer-style, "shovel-shape" gloves which made it much easier to catch the ball. One of these captured my imagination, though not my memory. I remember my best friend showing it to me when he first got it. It was a beautiful, caramel brown leather, with a truly unique pocket. I remember it as a "black star" web. The brown leather web was cut open in an "x" pattern and stretched open, forming a cup shape. In the resulting hole was sewn a patch of black leather. The wide opening in the center tapered to four points at the edge of the web; thus was formed the "black star." I can ALMOST remember a blue Spalding insignia patch below the back of the thumb ... but almost only counts in horseshoes and high school strike zones.
I would have fought, injured, maimed and crippled someone for one of those gloves, but I would not hurt my parent's feelings by asking them to buy me one to replace the glove they bought me. So, to this day, it is something I wish I had but never got, even though I don't remember exactly what it was!
Do any of you have any idea what I might be looking for? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Found it fellow glovers and it went in the mail today to Cowboy. It's a GJF8 Mark Belanger from the 1972 catalog. Fast back model with the star web (Pat. #3,588, 915). Holdster of course. Is similar to Bellows in a way in that the web collapsed around the ball well.
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