A game of catch, a ball & bat, a chalk diamond. Baseball has proved a perennial pastime for UP students from the earliest boarders ‘til today. The Shipstad quad– since before we built Shipstad– was the site for campus baseball-field(s) from the 1920s forward. And still today, the green space invites students onto the lawn to toss a baseball back and forth playing catch, combining at times into a half-organized pick-up game setting up one tangle of students to guard the bases and fields in competition against a batter who tries mightily to hit-in a run for the team.
Displayed alongside other items of athletic memorabilia in the University Museum is a vintage, well-worn right-handed leather baseball glove used by Columbia University student athlete, William Grussi, class of 1908.
The use of baseball gloves dates back to the 1860s with some fielders wanting to have protection for their hands. At first it was just a work glove, or a modified glove without finger tips. By the 1890s leather padded gloves and mitts were standard issue for regular play.
The circa 1908 glove used by Grussi features a full, solid web between thumb and forefinger to create a pocket for catching a baseball. Webbing was a new feature for baseball gloves between 1900-1910 and is the precursor to the see-through web style that is still in use today.
Grussi’s glove was made by the A. J. Reach Company, a U.S. manufacturer of sporting goods in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Founded in 1874 by former major league baseball player, Alfred James Reach, the Reach company made its name manufacturing its own baseballs and branching out to other athletic equipment including baseball bats, mitts and gloves. Reach later sold his business to one of his competitors, A.G. Spalding Bros., which manufactured the Reach gloves under the original name before transitioning to the Spalding brand.
Baseball Glove in Clark Library Digital collections:
https://digital.up.edu/Documents/Detail/baseball-glove-circa-1908/106118
References:
A.J. Reach Company:
http://www.antiquefootball.com/a_j_reach.htm
Baseball glove dating guide:
http://keymancollectibles.com/glovesmitts/fullwebgloves.htm
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