Do you remember your first glove?

First glove was a J. C. Higgins Jimmy Piersall model that my dad bought me when I was about 7 years old. Always had it "buttoned" to the handlebars of my bike. We would play home run ball at Jolleyman Elem. school hard top playground.

Mine was a Rawlings, Brooks Robinson model, which my Dad bought for me at 7 years old when I started playing Farm League baseball. During the summer me and 3 friends used to play "right side out" for hours at Wakelee Field.

The first one I got was from Western Auto. It was a Tommy Helms model. My most favorite was the one I played in HS with a Rawlings Fastback.

A couple of things here.
Either you all are younger than I am, or you didn't hang with the hippies and celebrate the peace movement. I have no clue what my first glove was, but still treasure my sons.

Workinghard,
Don't know about the others, but the hippies and peace movement happened in my late teens and early 20's. I was at Altamount where they say the 60's hippie and peace movement came to the end.

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Altamount

If you're going to San Francisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.

Who really stabbed Meredith Hunter in 1969?

My first glove was a Wilson, Tommy John model. Through HS and college, I got Rawlings Pro1000-H models from the Rawlings outlet in Reading, PA. Great gloves!

Me thinks it was a guy in a motorcycle jacket. Had some name on the back, something about Angel, Maybe a fan of the California Angels. Was to far away to see it and had way to much Red Mountain.

The first mother's day after my eldest was born, I gave my wife a Rawlings baseball glove. I had to get things started on the right foot!

She got the message; when my boys were very young, she would take them to the local park. She would pull all four car matts out of the car so that the boys could run the bases.

First glove was bought with S&H Greenstamps; no idea what it was but it was all mine. I licked enough of those stupid stamps that I can still remember the taste.

Next glove was a McGregor and then a Rawlings (H web Stan Musial model)used LL through Pony League (still have it).

Haight-Ashbury in '67...I was there. It was all groovy, man. The communes up in the Sierras were interesting also.

Still love San Francisco.

My first one got chewed up by the neighbor dog... the owner bought me a cheap one to replace it (my dad told me that's what happens to stuff that gets left out in the yard... sheesh nobody even got sued)

My favorite was a 1979 Wilson A2000 XLO... best glove ever made!

Mine was a Spalding, I think it was a Jim Fregosi model?

Coach May, I remember that Rawlings Fastback; they must have sold a billion of those.

Nice blue Billy Loes(?) signature model about 1960.
Also was an S & H greenstamps deal.
Hideous looking.

They must have skipper it seemed like everyone had one back in hs.

My dad picked up a Rawlings Claw Glove and I relaced it.
Used it coaching my own son in LL.
It was great for teaching the player's that it was not the glove, but the player wearing the glove that mattered.

The Rawling's Claw is on this website

http://www.oldbaseball.com/funstuff/oldtime.html

EH

Wilson, George Brett model, that was used from about the age of 3 until 6. Real leather, not the plastic garbage you see in today's youth gloves. I still have it. After I grew out of it my dad would keep it oiled and gave it back to me just before I left for college after I thought it'd disappeared years ago.

I never realized how important that glove was to me until it was brought back from the dead...or the back of my dad's closet where he kept it safe for over 10 years. I hold it now and all the memories of my playing days come back. I can't imagine how different my life would be today if not for that glove. Would I have played in high school, college, over seas? Would I be coaching the game that I grew to love? Who knows. But thanks Dad.

Knowing the importance of that first glove, my brother I think has shown me why I think that first one is so important to me. His mother-in-law bought a little plastic thing at a garage sale for his son's first birthday. My brother has refused to let my nephew wear that glove (it's been 3 years). His mother-in-law was hurt at first, but he said he couldn't let his son's first glove be second hand and bought by the boy's grandmother who knows nothing about the game.

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Originally posted by CCKnights:

I never realized how important that glove was to me until it was brought back from the dead...or the back of my dad's closet where he kept it safe for over 10 years. I hold it now and all the memories of my playing days come back. I can't imagine how different my life would be today if not for that glove.

I can relate to your feelings about that old glove CCKnights.

Quite a few years ago my mom gave me one of my first gloves that she had kept. In the bag along with my glove I found another glove that I assumed was my bothers until I got it out of the bag. It turned out it was my dads glove from when he was a boy(late 40's or early 50's). Needless to say she didn't get either of those gloves back.

20 years later I now have a very special collection of three generations of my families baseball gloves on display (dads, my two son's and mine). While they are just four old baseball gloves to most, they are priceless to me. Great memories indeed!

My first glove was a rawlings, I believe it was a Brooks Robinson model? I can relate to the dog chewing incident! I left my glove out on the lawn my freshman year of high school and my dog got to it. Of course, my mom wasn't going to replace that glove with a new one, it was only chewed at the end of the pinky finger and it still worked...I ended up using it (pinky finger chewed) until my girlfriend's dad bought me a new "Rawlings" before my senior year! I used that glove my senior year of high school and in college.

My wife and I bought our son a Rawlings Pro Preferred for Christmas...they're much more expensive now compared to when we were kids!

My first "real" glove was a Reggie Jackson Red/White/Blue Model, it had a Wing Tip, and was really cool at the time... My dog ripped it apart one day, and I remember being devastated... We tried to get a replacement from Smithtown Sporting Goods (Long Island, NY) but they didn't have any more... I had to resort to using a beater-old Wilson glove for a few weeks, and then I came home from school to find a new HFCB 17 Tom Seaver model on my bed! Not only did this model have a Wing Tip, but it also had Fastback & a Post-Web, which was even cooler! The only "problem" with the glove was that it was a Tom Seaver model, and I was a Yankee-Fan! I learned to respect and like Tom-Terrific and used this glove into High School, until I started playing Centerfield, and needed something a little bigger... I still have the HFCB 17, and it's still VERY usable... In fact so much so that my 12-year-old Travel-Baller wants to try it out in a game once... But I won't let him, as he's got his own Mizuno Classic Pro's which put mine to shame...

Dogs weren't the only glove chewers. I recall the taste of the leather laces. Anyone else?

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Well of course infidel...but I'm not going to talk about it!



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I got a Wilson Al Kaline glove for Christmas in 1969 at 7 years old. I loved that glove. About 2-3 years later my little brother left it in a snow drift, and I got it back in the Spring. The glove weighed about 20 lbs. So my parents made my little brother buy me a new glove from his allowance money. I wanted the Spaulding Bill Freehan catchers glove which was twice as expensive as the orginal Wilson Al Kaline. This was my foray into the "tools of ignorance" (catching). I loved both of those gloves. That catchers glove lasted 30 years, and got me through teaching my two oldest son's how to pitch.

I still have my first glove a rawlings fastback...and my first catchers mitt, a Nokona Bulldog.....

I have my sons first glove as well......

I also have my fathers gloves......the one I treasure most is the one that has US ARMY AIR CORPS stamped across the backstrap.....carried it all over the world in WWII...

My first glove was a Rawlings. I don't remember the autograph in it. I used nothing but Rawlings until my father got me an A2000 in college. I found a glove in a box in the garage. It was my father's high school glove. It looked like something Babe Ruth would wear.

Ok I hate to admit this, but the first glove that a bought for my son when he was 4 was a green and yellow Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle's glove. I took him to a Giants/Cardinals game in S.F. and after the game we went to the players gate and got Ozzie Smith to sign it. He still has it hanging on his wall in his room. Wish his gloves after that were as cheap.

Mine was an Albie Pearson model made by Spalding, also purchased from the Western Auto. At that time the Western Auto was about the only place to buy gloves in many small towns.

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Originally posted by Coach_May:
The first one I got was from Western Auto. It was a Tommy Helms model. My most favorite was the one I played in HS with a Rawlings Fastback.

A Wilson "Jim Greengrass" glove with very giant fingers.

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Ok I hate to admit this, but the first glove that a bought for my son when he was 4 was a green and yellow Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle's glove.

What a great memory! The first one I bought for 2B was a little red glove from Wal-Mart. It cost $5. My, how times have changed!

My grandmother worked for years at the Western Auto in Milledgeville GA. She sent 2B the $5 for his birthday.

Funny that I just stumbled on this thread. Bought Pyro a new catchers mitt recently, Wilson Pudge model. Took it out & it stirred up what used to be my memory, it smelled just like my first glove, had forgotten all about that one, an old Rawlings. My favorite though was my second glove, a Nokona.

My first glove was a Trap-Eze outfielder's mitt, with square cut-outs in the web. It lasted from LL through high school.
It was a Willie Davis signature model. I idolized him, and was sickened when I watched the '66 WS on TV and saw him make three errors in one inning.

Freddy; my big brother (a lefty) had a Trap-Eze; i remember those square patterns and square-tipped fingers.

My first one was my Dad's Rawlings, Martin Marion, Shortstop glove. Growing up in St. Louis that was quite the glove to have. He replaced it with a Rawlings Stan Musial. He had an older 3 finger glove from his Dad also. Don't remember what the name on it was but his Dad used that glove when he coached Semi-Pro back in Iowa as I remember him telling me. We used it for second base most of the time. Literally, the glove was second base. Had little appreciation for it at the time. By my third year of playing I had my very own new glove, Stan Musial, it was different than Dad's as gloves were getting a little longer by 1962. Kind of a trend with the St. Louis players.

Yep! Still have mine...will post a picture later...it was $16 back in 1972 in first grade....100% genuwine leather, boy! now you cant touch that price now...

My first glove was a Rawlings Tony Conigliaro model handed down to me by my dad. Used that for years until my brother used it and lost it on me!

There is actually one for sale on Ebay right now...someone check inside the wrist part for my name written in marker on it!

I cannot remeber the brand or model but I do recall that I was barely two years of age just walking when my grandparents got me my first bat, ball and glove.

My family was a great baseball family

This is an awesome thread. Do you remember the smell? The smell of your glove? I do. Everyone knew which glove was theirs. They were so easy to pick apart. Some guys had their names written on them with a marker. But that didnt matter. I knew my team mates gloves from just looking at them. It was the same glove they had and I had for many years back then. I had worn many of them over the years.

What really struck me when I started coaching was kids reaching in their bat bag and trying to decide which glove they were going to use that day. Another thing was the way they treated their gloves. Laying on the dug out floor being stepped on. Throwing their gloves. Not taking care of them. That is one thing that really gets to me even today. Son take care of that glove because it takes care of you.

I remember the taste of the laces sticking out of the fingers as well. Yes I would routinely bite on the laces coming out of the fingers. A glove and a player develop a bond. And it never ends. The glove may get old and worn out. It may reach the point where you have to replace it. But it is never thrown away. It is kept in a place where you can always go back and look at it. And every once in awhile you put it back on just to say hello to it.

I still have all my sons gloves over the years. I wanted to make sure he would have them one day when he is finished playing the game. Because I know they will one day be just as special to him as mine is to me. Great thread!

Coach_May

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Another thing was the way they treated their gloves. Laying on the dug out floor being stepped on. Throwing their gloves. Not taking care of them. That is one thing that really gets to me even today.

I agree , I never wanted my glove to hit the ground unless my hand was in it.
No dirt inside, that just bugged the C**P out of me to have any thing on my glove that I didn't put on myself.

I remember one team when my son was playing tournament's at age 13/14.
They were considered a top high profile team.
When they came to the dugout, they all placed there glove on there individual bag. They would always be organized to the point of having all there bags loaded up and ready to go??

As they picked up there first place trophy.

EH

I was like Ralphy from the Christmas Story....that glazed look of a wide, wonderful world of making it to the big league, but only a dream...now get to watch my boys go well beyond my dreams...