BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

Controversial Baseball Glove Model That 'Robbed' DiMaggio For Sale

This article is more than 6 years old.

Photo via eBay

“Here’s the pitch, swung on — belted! It’s a long one deep into left center — back goes Gionfriddo! Back- back-back-back-back-back. . .he makes a one-handed catch against the bullpen! Ohhh-hooo, Doctor!”

Red Barber’s radio call at Yankee Stadium during the 1947 World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees still resonates 70 years later. In game six, the Dodgers’ Al Gionfriddo ran at full force all the way to the left field wall, then twisted his body to pluck a a ball out of the air, robbing Joe DiMaggio of extra bases or a three-run homer. The five-foot six-inch left-fielder’s hustle saved the game.

Photo by Heritage Auctions

“Television, a World Series first that year, caught the iconic Yankee Clipper’s rare flicker of emotion as he kicked the dirt near second base,” writes Rory Castello for SABR. “Red Barber’s call, a classic action photo, dozens of writers and thousands of fans all helped the play live on.”

Gionfriddo--an obscure scrub whom the Dodgers manager called the “little Italian”--never played another big league game. How dare he humble the great Yankee Clipper? The baseball gods must have been crazy.

A rare and controversial baseball glove up for sale in a Heritage Auction sheds new light on this this dramatic moment and how the mighty Yankee exacted his revenge.

Photo via YouTube

The auction glove used by Dodgers third baseman Cookie Lavagetto in the 1940s— possibly but not certainly in the 1947 World Series— has an estimated value of $2,0000. So far it has edged up to $800, with four days left till hammer time.

Lavagetto’s glove is a Rawlings RR model bearing the endorsement of the Yankees’ four-time All Star third baseman Red Rolfe. Its unique design features a “extended rolled lace” web or a “net type of trap.” Harry “Doc” (short for Glove Doctor) Latina, the da Vinci of glove designers, hatched the idea.

Photo by Net54

“He would always tell the pros that he would give them an extra step in the outfield by the increased length of the web,” says baseball glove historian and Heritage’s chief glove expert. Joe Phillips. He authenticated the glove for the auction house.

The new design was a big sensation. Five future Hall of Famers, including Larry Doby and George Kell, were photographed using it. Two other Dodgers players in the 1947 World Series besides Lavagetto manned their positions with the same model, too. One was right fielder Carl Furillo and the other was Gionfriddo.

Photo via eBay

“When Gionfriddo made the catch against him in the series, it upset Joe a great deal and he thought that the diminutive Gionfriddo would not have made the catch with an ordinary, smaller glove,” says Phillips. “DiMaggio then influenced major league baseball officials to implement a new rule banning the rolled lacing.”

His clout would be remarkable in its own right. And there’s an ironic twist. At a baseball show I spotted a huge autographed poster of a young DiMaggio wearing a— get this!—rolled laced glove identical to the one he banned.

It turns out that the Baseball Hall of Fame has a rolled lace glove on display that DiMaggio used in the 1938 and 1939 seasons, including the Yankee’s World Series victories over the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds. That era ushered in the model and the great centerfielder’s endorsement gave it a huge lift.

Photo by David Seideman

The DiMaggio glove, however, has seen better days. For a $1500 donation to the Hall, you can prevent it “from collapsing and further cracking and breakage.” You will not only be performing a good deed, but probably burning a smaller hole in your wallet than if you win the Lavagetto glove. (Of course, you’d get to keep Lavagetto’s.) 

Once in a blue moon, the less expensive retail version of the RR also pops up. There’s one for sale for $850 on a popular collecting site. Mention this FORBES story and you’ll receive a 20 percent discount.

Doc Latina and his son Rollie, another glove guru at Rawlings, did not seem to mind sacrificing their invention to appease a living legend, according to an interview Phillips conducted with Rollie. “He told me that Rawlings had him making the rolled lace webs for the Rolfe models and it was time-consuming and tedious,” Phillips said.

Photo by Baseball Hall of Fame

As virtually any American who has ever used a Rawlings will attest, many of their designs remain classics. Think of the Deep Well Pocket, Edge-U-Cated Heel, and Trap-Eze. Welcome to baseball heaven.

In a 2002 obituary of Rollie, the AP reported that “at one time, father and son held about 90% of all baseball glove patents in the US.”  None was more compelling than the model that DiMaggio played a key role in launching and, later, outlawing.

Photo by David Seideman