Rawlings Glove

Last April (2019) I posted photos of a Tim Wallach model Rawling Glove that I had found on eBay.  It was something that I always figured must exists somewhere, given the fact that Wallach won three (should of been more) Gold Gloves during his career, but something I had never actually seen a picture of let alone owned.  

So after 35 years of searching, with Little League and Varsity careers wasted wearing a Kirby Puckett Wilson model glove on my hand (it was actually a great glove), I finally had a Wallach glove.  As chance would have it, it didn't take long to have two Wallach model gloves.  Literally before I could even publish the post for the first glove, this one showed up on eBay.  Naturally I bought it.  While it's in better shape, and used less, I like the first one better.  The first one actually looks like same model Wallach wore.   There's nothing wrong with this one, and given my preference for center field over shortstop (where I was usually forced to play), the web of this glove probably would have suited me better, but I still prefer the other model.  That said, this a very nice leather Rawlings if great shape.    I didn't post it right away because I wanted to give the first one it's proper deference, not water down it's significance.  Also, this is a baseball card blog, not baseball glove blog, so I figured some breathing room was in order.

I asked last time and didn't get much in the way of feedback, but if any of you are glove collectors (I am not), and know more about these gloves, please let me know.  Any information on this or the other one would be greatly appreciated.  Here are some more pictures:

Tim Wallach Rawlings Glove

This is NOT a game worn glove.  Well, at least not worn by Wallach in an MLB game.  Somebody wore it at some point, but more likely in some American Legion game by an anonymous teenager.

I wasn't sure if these existed.  When I saw it pop up on ebay, I did a double take and hit "Buy It Now" faster than I ever have in my live.  As a Little Leaguer, my general assumption was that anyone who won a Gold Glove also had a Rawlings glove that could be bought and worn.   I would have loved to have played with this glove.  I just never saw one, and came to accept that while my teammates had Jose Canseco, George Brett, Ozzie Smith, and other names proudly printed in the palm of their Rawlings gloves, that I would never get to sport "Tim Wallach" in mine.

Granted, I never had a Rawlings glove.  They were too expensive.  I suspect my parents would have found a way to buy me one had I stumbled across the Wallach model, but as I never did, it was never an issue.  My last year of Little League, my father bought me a new glove.  It was a black Wilson with Kirby Puckett's name in the palm.  I wore it through the end of Little League, all of Pony League, and a few years of varsity baseball until it was ultimately lost in a bag that was stolen out of a dugout in college.  I loved that glove and was sad to lose it.  Still, this glove feels really nice on my hand, and definitely would have been more suited for my last year varsity ball when I was forced to play shortstop than my Puckett outfielders glove was.  I have had one round of catch with it, but have retired it to a shelf now as I don't want to wear it out anymore than it already is.

I'm not very good at reading the markings on these gloves, so if anyone out there is, and can give me more info on it (or better yet point me in the direction of a new one) please let me know.