by Number9 » April 7th, 2010, 6:08 pm
Good points. This glove clearly is not a workman's glove, nor is it in the style of a workman's glove used for baseball.
A few more things to help clarify this "workman" or "not a workman" argument (for when it pops up again, which it will). While there were very likely to have been true workman's style gloves (intended for use as a laborer) that made their way onto the diamond, it would be nearly impossible to prove an old work glove's history as being strictly, or partially, tied to baseball. The term "workman" as it relates to baseball can also be misleading, or at least debatable as styles changed and progressed. Generally speaking, the workman's style baseball glove should be roughly the shape of the natural hand, not in the shape of a baseball catching device (fat fingers, elongated fingers, wide palm, webbing, etc.) The same can be said for a laborers glove, it would be snug throughout the entirety of the hand. That said, gloves that were manufactured in the workman's style for specific use as a baseball glove, were, at least, partially padded in some form. These were intended for a specific purpose on the ball field and they were designed to meet the given objective, which was to protect the hand from a sharply thrown or batted ball. A laborer's glove would have only protected against abrasion. Most full fingered ball gloves from the 1880's would have been used by a catcher (or in the outfield by a mollycoddle) and would have had some sort of palm padding at minimum. Both the lining, and the padding, would not be present in a work glove intended for labor. So, while the argument against a workman's style ball glove having a crescent pad is correct, it would have padding of some form, be it leather or wool/asbestos.
The truly hard to categorize gloves would be those that arrived between the workman's style ball glove and the crescent full web's of the 1890's. The web-less crescents that arrived around 1890 have most of the characteristics of a workman's glove while also hinting at the more purpose-built future innovations to come.
You picked a great month. I'm loving the daily updates!
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