What Ever Happened To Your First Glove?
My daughter’s grandpa found his first glove today. He was cleaning out boxes, got stuck on a picture that turned into a thousand other pictures. In between all of that he found everything else from his past. One of those things was his first glove:
I’m wearing it for the picture. We’re both left handed but it feels awkward on my hand. He used it in high school in the late 40’s. He thinks it says “Rawlings” but it doesn’t look like that to me. I’m positive it doesn’t say “Mizuno”. Either way, tough to say. He told me he remembers restringing it a couple of times. I asked him if it would be cool if we re-strung it one more time and went out and had a catch. He said yes. Beats writing Winter haiku’s.
Where’s your first glove? What ever happened to your first glove??????
A Place To Talk About Giants Baseball 
I’m sure my mom threw it away 40 years ago. It was a Rusty Staub model Rawlings . . .
I have it somewhere. A Ken Hunt model. I wanted the Cepeda first baseman’s glove just cause it was Cepeda, but my dad thought a kid my size was better off scooting around the outfield.
I don’t remember my first glove. I can picture the catchers mitt I wheedled my dad into buying, after my little league coach discovered I could throw a baseball harder and farther than anyone else on the team. I was going to become a pitcher.
Anyway, months after buying the mitt, I eventually convinced my dad — a post war German immigrant who had no idea about the game — to play catcher for me. The bullpen session with him lasted about 10 minutes. There was never another.
But wait, it gets worse! I pitched well enough to make the All-Star team for the Ramstein AFB little league (my dad had joined the USAF and got stationed in Germany). The all star teams on the European military bases compete against each other for a slot in the Little League World Series. The year I was selected for the All Stars, Ramstein, after beating a slew of other teams, played for the European championship and a trip to the WS against Torrejon AFB in Spain. We lost 1-0. Only I wasn’t with the team. I had to withdraw from participation because my parents had decided that summer we were going to visit my grandparents, who conveniently still happened to be living in the Fatherland.
My Uncle gave me a Rawlings “Claw” first basemans mitt around 1962 that looked a lot like that glove. I don’t know how old it was but it looked brand new. It was a Whitey Lockman autographed model. If you Google Rawlings Claw there are a bunch of pictures of different used models over the years, a few look just like that model in the picture.
My MacGregor Roberto Clemente glove from 1967 that some MOFO Kelly Brook stole . . .
https://www.iconicmemorabilia.com/LotImages/47/28267b_lg.jpeg 🙂
My grandfather from Dad’s side got me a lefthanded first baseman type glove similar to the one in flav’s picture too. My dad was a 6 footer with big hands, and I was a scrawny 10 year old, so none of his old stuff would fit. I think the guy’s name on it was Cunningham (Joe?) who might have played with STL. Cool glove, which suffered same fate as all our gear did from my Mom as did Chuck’s.
Tho I haven’t played in 10 years I still have 3 softball (OF) gloves around.
God I loved my 1st glove a Rawlings Willie Mays signature.Had the sheepskin on the wrist band which was cool and helpful to keep sweat off.Played OF in little league days,and staring at my idols signature and always wanting to mimicking his basket catch was special.
I’m pretty sure you mean a MacGregor.
Still have them all. Normal glove, 1st base glove and catchers mitt, a left handed version that was hard to find back then. The first one was just the normal glove. They’re all in the closet waiting for little man.
Thrown out like everything else. I last used it trying to make my middle school team. Did so poorly I threw the damn glove away.
Still have a couple mitts from college (early 80s). A Rawlings fastback OF glove, and a Ryne Sandberg infielder’s glove.
I don’t remember my first. Like others…it probably got tossed by my mom when weeding things out. I had a Rawlings that I had owned for almost 30 years that was stolen. I had been in Monterey for a good friend’s wedding (on Carolyne…my HD Road King). On the way home, I stopped in the City and met my daughter, son, and a bunch of friends for a Dodger-Giant night game. When I came out after the game, some piece of shit had stole my tour pack (large locked-on piece of luggage that mounts to the back of the bike), and of course, my glove was in the tour pack (bone-headed me had forget to take the glove into the yard with me). That one was a bummer, as I had used that glove for many years and really miss it. Sad thing is that the POSs who stole the tour pack probably tossed the glove. I have a Nacona Pro, now (small infielder’s glove).
Bobby Richardson Denkert Glove.
I know sac relig…
My first glove was a kid’s-size glove, but it had Bobby Bonds’ autograph stamped on it, so that made it AWESOME.
Somewhere in the kitchen porch my second glove gathers dust. Wore it pitching for Minneapolis Central High in Spring of 1960. Got the spikes too. Kangaroo hide. Purchased at the old landmark Sears and Roebuck on Lake Street near Chicago Avenue in Mpls when my family lived about 12 blocks from there. Alas, they are no longer a fit as one’s feet do tend to grow larger over the years. My gawrsh! Those two hunks of leather are over 50 years old already. Maybe an antique shop of the recently trending mantiques type? Naah. Probably keep them along with that mass of Giants baseball cards starting with 55’s and concluding with 89’s.
The Glove I really want is the bad boy in the LF bleachers at ATT.😀
Go great with the pink flamingos in the front yard, huh? 🙂
That picture is awesome Flavor. I remember a friend of mine bringing his grandpa’s glove to LL practice once and passing it around. Of course it was right handed so it was obviously defective or something. It was like the one you show with 3 fingers but had more padding. Maybe it was older. I don’t know.
I had a grandfather who was an A’s fan. I happened to be visiting a lot during the era of the “Swingin’ A’s” 3 championships in a row. He would always have the radio on Monte Moore’s broadcasts. So few of the games were televised in those days, of course. And one day, my Grandpa dropped a bit of a bombshell on me (it seemed like a bombshell at the time to me), that he had played a lot of baseball when he was a kid.
Besides never having realized that my grandparents were actually kids at one time, the idea that my grandfather had played a lot of baseball blew my mind for some reason. It’s one of those moments when you realize they are real people with real lives, and not just your grandparents.
A few years later, I was a teenager, and like a lot of teenagers, it suddenly wasn’t as cool to be spending as much time visiting my grandparents, or so I thought. And then eventually they’re gone, and you wish you could go back and spend more time with them, and really get to know them better.
Coming from a long line of mean Irish drunks, I learned to keep my distance from papa at the appropriate times!
My dad’s dad’s claim to fame was getting a foul ball at Wrigley Field, and breaking his leg in the process. He was 14 at the time. I saw the ball when I went to Chicago (in AUGUST) for a couple weeks in 1968. I wonder what happened to that.
I think my first glove guy, Ken Hunt, was on something in 1961. I think a lot of guys were on something in 1961. 1970, too. I guess the balls were juiced or something – so many guys had fluky good years.
Having 2 big brothers, my first couple of gloves were hand-me-downs from them. The first was a Larry Sherry that I still have and the other was a Billy Williams Rawlings with a sweet “Trap-Eze” web. That one got lost years later. My first glove that was all mine was a Wilson Chris Speier that I still have. I used to keep 2 fingers out of it for some strange reason. I remember it used to drive my coaches crazy, but it felt right to me.
I have a bit of a glove obsession—I’ve got a box with about 25 of them in it. I could go on and on about the different models and reasons I have them. I have a Denny McClain model that is totally bad ass and even has the name “The Controller” stamped on it along with a big “31” in the pocket. I used to be hooked on buying gloves on e-bay. Drove the ex-wife crazy.
Ebay my downfall…I must have 100 or more gloves…All Hall of Famers. Now I’ve begun selling off some of my memorabilia because the Hall is losing its luster.
Nice! I’ve sold a few of mine as well, but need to get rid of more of them. Off the top of my head, some of the gloves I have besides listed above are Bobby Bonds, Catfish Hunter, Dave Kingman, Jim Davenport, Ryne Sandberg (probably that same model Chuck has—which is a great infield glove for softball), Mike Piazza (what can I say–it was weak moment, Richie Hebner, Sal Bando, Fred Lynn, Cesar Cedeno, Amos Otis, Dave Concepcion, Bobby Grich, Brooks Robinson, Dal Maxvill.
When I was in my bad E-Bay phase, if I saw a glove listed that was the same model that a friend or teammate had when I was a kid, I had to have it.
Great pic, Craig. Whoa, Loo, the Ken Hunt model was my first glove too, circa early to mid-’60s…. kind of a small little thing. Long gone. The next one I remember was a Mickey Lolich. I was an infielder in Little League, but that “pitcher’s model” was great at scooping grounders and I had it for years. Left it in my locker at my high school field house after I quit the JV baseball team (I was the starting 2nd baseman) because suddenly at 15, getting high and making out with girls seemed more important than playing for an asshole coach who reamed me in front of everyone for missing a bunt sign… I’d like to think someone is still using that glove…
Exactly Paul, around ’63 -’64 is when I got it. I remember it being more orange looking than brown, right? That is quite an amazing coincidence. I mean this is Ken Hunt were talking about! From an odds standpoint does this come close to the 2 Flap children that are dating?
lol, no. Hey, what was the name of that big, burly meat head you used to go to games with? Buzzzaw? Something like that? I know I’ve asked you several times–can’t remember
I can tell you- It’s not easy making out if one doesn’t take the glove off first. The bat under the pillows is a mite awkward as well.
I dreamt of my first glove the other night.It was where it was every winter- in my closet with a baseball in the pocket . If I recall, I had the glove until High School. I might have left it behind after a pick up game. My memory is foggy on that, but I remember being very distraught. I replaced it with a glove that had like a 6 foot pocket that stlll dropped balls just like the old one did 😉
Great glove stories today, guys. Sorry I couldn’t be a part of it. But I read all of these thoughtful posts twice. Nice.
“a sold out Oracle Arena”–Young Bob.
Really? It looks like there’s more empty seats in the low bowl than taken seats.
Steph Curry–complete tat-less. I love that. I wish he would stop gnawing on his mouth piece 24/7. I’d trade a single tat for no more mouth piece gnawing…..
this whole *ebay-second-hand-glove-racket?” I’d love to hear more about that side of the planet that I’m not a part of.
Flav. ebay makes collecting stuff easier because the stuff comes from all over as opposed to just going to your local garage sale. In its infancy winning an auction was almost as exciting as finding what you wanted to bid on…
I get the eBay thing. I’m not understanding the 80-100 glove thing. Shit, just from a space place, where do they all go?
When I was single I had a lot of them on display in a large bookcase, or in a room like a man cave…Now most are tucked away in a large dresser like the Asian men in the Seinfeld episode.
At about 5:30 in this video, you can catch a glimpse of Richard Sherman’s glove:
http://www.seahawks.com/videos-photos/videos/Richard-Sherman-Celebrity-Softball/de334eb2-c199-4c27-8299-f6b1fd0ce947
So the Tanaka situation spins one off for the Giants. David “don’t call me Aubrey” Huff, a LHP DFAed by the Yanks after the big signing was acquired yesterday by SF for cash considerations. Not too steep a price for a first round (39th, by Cleveland) draft pick who will be 30 in August.
The southpaw has been both a starter and a reliever for Cleveland and was used outta the pen by the Yanks last year after snatching him from Chief Wahoo. Curiously for a lefty, he has been more effective vs RHB’s than vs portsiders.
My take is that Huff likely begins the season on the Fresnobus as the backup to the backup starter in The Show. Meaning Yusmeiro Petit is the longman and presumed fill-in should there be an injury or ineffectiveness on the part of anyone in the Rotation. Should Petit jump into a starting role, Huff, because of his experience in both situations, could well get the call as the new longman for the Giants.
Generally Huff has been no great shakes in a starting role but has been middling effective outta the pen. The price was okay for this insurance policy and depth provider.
After consuming everything ever published on Richard Sherman, I re-read “Yo Yo’s with Money,” a classic that takes a little while to pick up steam. Reggie Cleveland, Denny Doyle . . . it’s a transcript of Ted Berrigan and Harris Schiff “calling” a Yankees/Sox game back in 1977 at Yankee Stadium:
Tats are a monument to the stupidity of man. Cellphones in use while driving is close second.
Baseball? I want a sport with stones. Go, USA Curling.
Yup, time to get a curling stone foam hat. That’s what I’m talkin’ about.
http://www.gocurling.com/
That’s pretty funny..”.curling hats in action.”
so is the one from James on the game–I’ll have to finish reading it later.