Your first glove

Justacommeman

One of my fondest memories as a kid was my first baseball glove. It was a facsimile signature of Zoilo Versalles. I ended up playing shortstop on
every team I ever played for

I can remember my dad putting a baseball in the pocket and wrapping a belt around it and soaking in the tub over night. It was like Christmas

What was your first mitt?

mark

DIMEMAN

Evidently I never had a good glove.....the ball never would stay in it.

perkdog

I wish I kept my first glove, it disappeared like a lot of other things from my youth

Kkathyl

I loved playing ball. My Mom was our softball coach and she was tough. I remember my first glove, wrapping rubber bands around it to help it close tighter. This was the first time being left handed was apparently going to be an issue. Special left handed gloves came at a premium. We came from modest means. I use a right handed glove to this day. I became real good at catching the ball, popping off the glove, and throwing to home. I played left field & short stop. Good memories.

MCMLVTopps

Can't remember the glove excatly, but it was a catcher's mitt...however, I was an uber-victim of "mom threw it out". We moved to a new home when I was pretty young, being excited about the whole thing and thinking everything in my world was packed somewhere, I was shocked to learn what had not made the trip.

Gone was my Daisy Red RyderBB gun, my cherished lionel train set and worst of all, my baseball cards. Many of my cards were early 50s Topps and Bowman's, I distinctly remember the tv frame in the pics. Please don't ask how many 52 Topps Mantles I had, it's not a pleasant memory. I had so many 55 Topps go through my fingers, it's hard to fathom what I would have today, had I been more prescient then, I'd be driving a new corvette today. The 55 Topps were a nickel a pack, girls would just want the big slab of pink gum and give me their cards. I just shake my head when I reminisce. Wonderful times then, but the baseball card thing and especially my BB gun are bummer memories. Never got close to "putting my eye out".

Merry Christmas to all.

Al

keets

there's a really good scene at the beginning of "Hearts in Atlantis" when David Morse gets a package in the mail. a childhodd friend has died and, as is revealed later via flashback, "Sully" had put it in his will per an agreement between the two. a very poignant scene and movie with Morse aboard with Anthony Hopkins and Stephen Spielberg.

I wish I still had my old, first mitt. the one I have now is probably close to 30 years old and still in good, usable shape.

Barndog

found my first glove. It was nearly buried near a window to a basement. Total POS it was, but it was all I had and what I used for years since gloves were too expensive.

It was a welcome relief from using my father's glove (he and I shared the same name, so I figured it had to be mine). Whenever I used that glove, I totally sucked. Could catch well, but couldn't throw well at all. My father, unlike me, was a lefty.

Coinstartled

Seemed like I always had one. It was Summer ritual to hang it from the handlebar, ride your bike around and hope that you found a game.

larryallen73

Awesome thread.

My first was no-name (that I recall) cheap glove but Al Downing visited us one day at summer camp and he signed it (about 1975).

My next glove, which I still have, is a Reggie Jackson model. Had it re-strung about 30 years ago. Doesn't get much use these days.

DIMEMAN

Neat stories.

Coinstartled

I recall the Rawlings fastback was the must have glove in the real early 70's

Got one...still could not play the outfield worth a damn.

dallasactuary

I kept my first glove in the garage, and this being many years ago the door was never closed. It survived the weather, but not the birds who moved in and nested in the rafters. Went to get it one day and it was just caked in white bird poop. I think I only owned one other glove between that one and the one I still have today.

Tabe

I got my first glove when I signed up for t-ball at age 5 in 1977. My dad took me to the sporting goods store and bought it for me. He made a big deal out of it. There's something special about a father getting his son his first glove. It was a Mark Fidrych model. We took it home and he oiled it up and worked on that glove for what seemed like hours and then we stuck in a chair between the seat and the back to help break it in.

I had that glove for over 20 years and, thanks to it being too big when I was 5 and my small hands when I was 25, it still fit. I have many, many fond memories of using that glove - pitching to my dad, playing catch with my mom, t-ball and baseball games, coaching high school baseball, and so on. It disappeared when we moved in 1998 and I have not seen it since. I bought another glove but...that's just a glove. It's not a Mark Fidrych model bought for me by my father.

garnettstyle

My first glove was for pee wee league in 1977. Dave Parker which I still have.

Coinstartled

@dallasactuary said:
I kept my first glove in the garage, and this being many years ago the door was never closed. It survived the weather, but not the birds who moved in and nested in the rafters. Went to get it one day and it was just caked in white bird poop. I think I only owned one other glove between that one and the one I still have today.

Turd baseman's glove!

Wingsrule

Rawlings for 20+ years until someone stole my car with my gear in it. Never found a replacement I liked so had to settle for a Wilson.

BGS_Buyer

early 80's baseball set

those really CHEAP plastic bat, plastic ball, and the thin sheets of plastic that they formed into what they believed was a baseball glove. it has some fingers, and area to catch a ball, but not the one that the set came with

coinkat

It was a Rawlings glove... That I am certain of. I am thinking it was Mickey Mantle. Baseball was fun back in the day...

sparky64

This was my first glove. I remember the unique web.
It was a Mark Belanger model.

3stars

Had a Richie Zisk model, forgot the brand. Disintegrated from overuse.