Post by glasspoet on Jan 24, 2014 23:33:56 GMT -5
It has been my contention that the BIGGEST difference in old-time baseball and today's baseball is the field and equipment: in particular the glove.
My first glove, from my father, was a catcher's mitt. It was old style, unhinged, no pocket at all -- couldn't catch a thing with it! Until I was shown how to make a glove work. We force wrapped it around a baseball really tight and tied it up strong that way. Then we took the glove and dropped it in a jar of olive oil. After a week, taking it out, it had the best pocket you'd ever want! When I played baseball later, almost always a doubleheader, and I wasn't catching -- every catcher from all the teams ALWAYS borrowed my glove. For many years.
But this isn't a story about gloves, but about one of my first favorite ballplayers. Not many people have heard of him, but then there weren't that many Yankee fans in the mid and late sixties when they were a terrible team.
His name was Bobby Richardson. He was small, even for a secondbaseman. Maybe a little taller than Pedroia, but not near as big. He could hit some, he batted leadoff often for the Yanks for years -- he made a few All-Star teams. But it wasn't his hitting that made him my favorite, or even his fielding, though he won multiple gold gloves -- it was his GLOVE. It was black and looked like a mitt from the teens or thirties. It look OLD and dripped oil.
Baseball wasn't on t.v. much them days, but when it was -- it was often a Yankee game. In 1 game I saw Bobby throw his glove at a line drive well over his head and snag it! Later that same game he blatantly threw his glove at a grounder definitely getting through between him and Pepitone the 1Bman. His glove wrapped it up clean as a whistle and saved a run and a big inning! He was known for it, it wasn't something new -- but it was really COOL to see it in reality! Needlessly to say -- HE is the reason MLB outlawed that maneuver a short while later --- YOU CAN LOOK IT UP!
My first glove, from my father, was a catcher's mitt. It was old style, unhinged, no pocket at all -- couldn't catch a thing with it! Until I was shown how to make a glove work. We force wrapped it around a baseball really tight and tied it up strong that way. Then we took the glove and dropped it in a jar of olive oil. After a week, taking it out, it had the best pocket you'd ever want! When I played baseball later, almost always a doubleheader, and I wasn't catching -- every catcher from all the teams ALWAYS borrowed my glove. For many years.
But this isn't a story about gloves, but about one of my first favorite ballplayers. Not many people have heard of him, but then there weren't that many Yankee fans in the mid and late sixties when they were a terrible team.
His name was Bobby Richardson. He was small, even for a secondbaseman. Maybe a little taller than Pedroia, but not near as big. He could hit some, he batted leadoff often for the Yanks for years -- he made a few All-Star teams. But it wasn't his hitting that made him my favorite, or even his fielding, though he won multiple gold gloves -- it was his GLOVE. It was black and looked like a mitt from the teens or thirties. It look OLD and dripped oil.
Baseball wasn't on t.v. much them days, but when it was -- it was often a Yankee game. In 1 game I saw Bobby throw his glove at a line drive well over his head and snag it! Later that same game he blatantly threw his glove at a grounder definitely getting through between him and Pepitone the 1Bman. His glove wrapped it up clean as a whistle and saved a run and a big inning! He was known for it, it wasn't something new -- but it was really COOL to see it in reality! Needlessly to say -- HE is the reason MLB outlawed that maneuver a short while later --- YOU CAN LOOK IT UP!
