A Glove I wish I had ... but I don't know what it is!

[Cowboy7130]

WARNING - 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!

[softball66]

Rawlings was making the Spalding gloves at this time and using identical patterns only with Spalding info at this time. Rawlings had experiemented with die cut webs on its glove (leather patterns pre cut in certain designs) like the wagon wheel spoke gloves.
I did'nt have any Spalding 70s catalogs but Rawlings had a GJ import model of Mark Belanger in 1972 that sounds like your glove. It has what looks like a black 4-pointed star in the center of the web. A small kids model. They probably took this glove pattern over to Spalding's line and that might be what you had.

[spedrunr]

could this be the one that you seek?

ebay auction

330088866703

[Cowboy7130]

Nope, that's not it, but that is a pretty cool looking older glove.

[spedrunr]

mebbe this......

150096698865

[MVALZ]

I know the glove JP is talking about (Belanger)...I'm gonna find it. Love a challenge

[spedrunr]

good to know you can always turn to a glove expert when you need to

[Cowboy7130]

That one is not it, either, but again, a cool old glove! I remember the pocket being solid, other than the cut-out and inserted 4-point star-shaped piece of black leather. It did not have the wagon spokes.

One of our friends here is sending me a photocopy from one of his catalogs, via snail-mail. He seems confident it is the Belanger glove. I haven't seen one in over 30 years, so I am looking forward to it!

[spedrunr]

oh yeah, i remember now. the black star is sort of like a "bellows web", an import model.

didn't darth vader use that in the empire strikes back?

[softball66]

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.

[glove-works]

I had a Bobby Knoop GJF8 with the same web.

Here's a lefty on eBay...not sure about all that stitching on the back??Yikes!

http://cgi.ebay.com/VINTAGE-Lefty-RAWLI ... dZViewItem

[Cowboy7130]

THAT'S IT!!!

[spedrunr]

that would be the bride of frankenstein glove

[Bleacher Bum]

I have a Rawlings Willie Stargell that I picked up off of eBay a while back with that same star pattern web as shown in the ebay listing above. Mine is in much better shape and for a RHT, however. I will try to post a pick this evening when I get home from work along with details.

Bleacher Bum

[Bleacher Bum]

Here are a couple of pics of the Willie Stargell Rawlings WS8 with the odd web. Glove is smaller, however it fits on my adult hand (a tad snug).





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