by BretMan » March 26th, 2008, 3:59 pm
I've never had the chance to see one in person but, like you, see them on eBay fairly often. The last few I've seen brought fairly respectable prices for a non-endorsed modern era glove, probably due to the unique design.
It's kind of cool that the glove has the "Playmaker" logo on it, a throwback to the three-finger Playmaker gloves of the 40's and 50's.
Back in 1980, I bought a big 14" MacGregor three-finger softball glove and loved it, using it until it just about disintegrated. The three-finger design really does seem to increase the amount of leverage you can get when closing your hand, which I belive was the original intent of the three-finger dedign.
One thing I've wondered about on these gloves is the "sewn panel" design on the palm leather, where the leather in the palm is two panels sewn together, instead of being one solid piece. I guess that's something that was done to get the "two-tone" color effect.
Is there a name for this technique? It seems to have been revived lately on inexpensive gloves. I wonder if there is some cost savings involved by making a glove that way. I also wonder how durable the stitched seam would be in the palm like that.