I decided
to join in and throw the baseball around so I went to get my glove only to discover my old glove had been packed. Ok … it still works. It's broken in and warn but
still a good functioning glove.
It was
pretty old so I told my nephew how I
acquired the glove.
In 1972 on
a family summer vacation, we were visiting relatives in Arthur, Iowa. The church softball team had a game coming up. I asked if I could play. They said I may be too young but said they
would make an exception for an inning. I didn’t have a glove and I was a lefty … Reese J. played shortstop and had a nice Red, White, and Blue Rawlings glove. After seeing it I just had to have that same glove. I remember my parents driving quite a distance to a particular store after persistent begging on my part to buy it for me.
I played
an inning at first base. No errors on my
part, can’t remember if we won the game … Fast forward … I used this glove playing in
several softball leagues through high school, and in college, and sporadically years
after.
Looking at this
old glove I noticed a couple things on it that got me thinking so I decided to find
out what I could about it. Below is what
I found.
My glove
is a Rawlings Roberto Clemente Brooks Robinson World Series Special. It’s a Rawlings Fastback baseball glove and was sold in
stores shortly after the 1971 World Series which featured the Gold Glove winner
Roberto Clemente, with the Pittsburgh Pirates playing against fellow Gold Glove winner Brooks Robinson, with the
Baltimore Orioles. The Pirates won four games to three. Unfortunately, the celebration in
Pittsburgh would soon turn to mourning as fourteen months later Roberto
Clemente was killed in a plane crash.
The WSS
Rawlings Fastback Glove was issued in 1971 and came in two models (The World Series
Special and the Gold Glove Award). My red, white, and blue glove reads World
Series Special on the pinky finger.
Since I
used my glove for so many years in all types of weather I have restrung it a
couple times. I mainly played 1st
base as I was pretty good a catching almost everything thrown at me. In one of the leagues I was called in by the
umpire and told I couldn’t use this glove because the outside webbing was
white. The same color as the ball. If I turned the glove it was hard for the umpire to
distinguish between a white ball caught or the white webbing.I wasn’t about to buy a new glove. To keep tradition with the Red, White, and Blue I took a Red marker and colored in the white webbing to solve the problem.
Years ago
things were different. This must have
been a prized possession of mine. Why, you ask? Because there are 2 distinct things I
noticed on my glove. My dad took one
of those branding-type pencils and we branded my name on the glove. I can still read it. OH … We also branded my SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER on the glove and yes, I can read it also. I have no idea
why we did that!!!
This got me thinking ... Has the world
changed? Are things different now? Should it be that we all emboss, brand, write, or
chisel our social security number on things of importance?
