#GoingDeep: The evolution of baseball gloves

References to amateur players donning gloves started to appear as early as the 1860s. In most instances, it was by a catcher using them to protect sore hands. These gloves were oftentimes flesh-colored or light in color as to not draw unwanted attention to them.  Players would purchase or repurpose a set of work gloves or tradesmen’s gloves and cut off the fingers. Some players used a bricklayer’s glove while others used driving gloves or a railroad brakeman’s glove. 

But no matter the primary source, gloves were utilitarian in nature and not made as sporting goods. They were repurposed from other trades and used for one reason only: protection.  Players improvised and used everything from hay to sponges to raw meat as padding. As the pitching rules evolved along with pitch deliveries and the need for catchers to stand nearer the plate, so did the need for protection.

A well-known account of 1869 Red Stockings catcher Doug Allison indicated he wore a set of buckskin gloves to protect his sore hands in 1870. Due to the stature of the Cincinnati club, the publicity cast a wide net and paved the way for others.   

Charles Waitt was widely known as one of the first fielders to wear a protective glove in 1875 according to Hall of Famer Albert G. Spalding.  Although Waitt was not the first, Spalding wrote:

“The first glove I ever saw on the hand of a ball player in a game was worn by Charles C. Waite (sic), in Boston, in 1875.  He had come from New Haven and was playing at first base. The glove worn by him was of flesh color, with a large, round opening in the back. Now, I had for a good while felt the need of some sort of hand protection for myself…For several years I had pitched in every game played by the Boston team, and had developed severe bruises on the inside of my left hand. When it is recalled that every ball pitched had to be returned, and that every swift one coming my way, from infielders, outfielders or hot from the bat, must be caught or stopped, some idea may be gained of the punishment received.

“Therefore, I asked Waite (sic) about his glove. He confessed that he was a bit ashamed to wear it, but had it on to save his hand. He also admitted that he had chosen a color as inconspicuous as possible, because he didn’t care to attract attention. He added that the opening on the back was for purpose of ventilation…Still, it was not until 1877 that I overcame my scruples against joining the “kid-glove aristocracy” by donning a glove. When I did at last decide to do so, I did not select a flesh-colored glove, but got a black one, and cut out as much of the back as possible to let the air in.

“I found that the glove, thin as it was, helped considerably, and inserted one pad after another until a good deal of relief was afforded. If anyone wore padded glove before this date I do not know it.  The ‘pillow mitt’ was a later invention.”  (America’s National Game, 1911)

A.G. Spalding started the sporting goods company bearing his name in 1876, and his 1877 Spalding’s Official Base Ball Guide first listed catcher’s gloves for sale.

Austin Butts applied for the first patent on a sporting glove on May 15, 1877, and was granted a patent on Jan. 1, 1878. The Butts glove was similar to a bricklayer glove and used to bear the brunt of the pitched ball. On April 12, 1883, he applied for his second ball glove patent, this time for a fingerless glove. In 1885, George H. Rawlings of St. Louis patented the padded glove.

Providence infielder Arthur Irwin broke a couple fingers on his catching hand in 1883. He had an idea for a protective glove and took it to the J.F. Draper & Co. (later Draper & Maynard). His design was to transform an oversized buckskin driving glove into a padded glove to use on his injured hand so he could play. He continued to wear it after his hand healed and it caught on widely throughout the league. He said he made these gloves for other players as well as companies like Spalding & Reach who ordered them directly for retail sale. D&M then manufactured the Irwin Model for other retailers.   

Until this time, gloves were only used at catcher and first base.  In addition, the Irwin model further bridged the gap between gloves being homemade to gloves being manufactured as sporting goods and thus work or workman’s gloves now became baseball gloves, or sporting goods.

These were all gloves – protection with fingers up to this point.  The mitt or mitten or “pillow mitt” referred to by Spalding had yet to come along. So catchers wore two padded fingerless gloves on both hands up through the mid-1880s. The catching glove developed padded fingers, and a thinner, smaller fingerless glove was used on the throwing hand to allow the catcher to return the ball to the pitcher. This would all change in the late 1880s with Joe Gunson’s design of the round catcher’s mitt…but the credit can’t be given so quickly.

Many claimed to have invented the round mitt, and Morris wrote about it well. While Jack McCloskey, Paul Buckley, Ted Kennedy and Harry Decker all claimed to have invented it, it’s more widely believed that Joe Gunson should be given credit of the idea and that Kennedy took Gunson’s idea and patented it prior to Gunson, who didn’t really worry about such things. In a 1939, hand-written letter by Gunson to William Beattie, Curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Gunson recounts making a mitt out of a glove by sewing the fingers together and using a perimeter wire, belts and sheepskin to be used in two games to be played on Decoration Day in 1888 while playing against Kennedy, the pitcher on the opposing team. Gunson explained his design to Kennedy who was quick to patent an inferior version of Gunson’s mitt. Decker realized the design deficiency then patented a better one more closely resembling Gunson’s.

The use of gloves was nearly universal by the end of the 1880’s. The 1890s saw baseball gloves progress toward fielding tools. Crescent padded heels were sewn on the front exterior of the glove to form a pocket.  Webs were sewn between the thumbs and forefingers. They started out large and later became smaller to allow more flexibility. Purists like George Wright thought gloves would give fielders an unfair advantage, yet his company manufactured them. In 1895, the rules committee felt the need to restrict the size of a glove to 10 ounces and no more than 14 inches in circumference. The catcher and first baseman were free to use a glove of any size.