When Anna dropped her father's vintage 60’s piece off, I reveled on that it would ultimately glow when placed on a shelf. Didn't anticipate the quizzical What'ch'u Talkin 'Bout-Willis look in return, and far less saw getting set straight with, "Display it? Why in the world would I do that? I'm going to USE it.".
Not so often such glibness would leave me so damn glad… yet nervous.
First vintage to game ready restore I finished up back in January. Not much in the way of backstory concerning her father's time with the glove because, as Anna put it, "He was more of a nerd than jock", but I can say with certainty there's no lack of potential for volumes to come.
From what I've gathered -and have a feeling there's a lot more to add to the list- Anna is an athlete eager to dedicate her time to the sports she loves and open to taking on new challenges. With how long it takes me to feel human again from one Sandlot baseball Sunday, I can't really imagine how anyone can play at least two games in a competitive softball league, a full game of fast-pitch Sandlot baseball, AND be in a Gaelic Hurling club (one of the fastest and most punishing sports on the planet) all within a week's expanse without bionic advantages. Could be wrong, but I think there might be soccer and potentially another stick sport thrown in there as well. I don't know- even thinking about it makes me too dizzy to sort it out. And that's just sports badassery
Won't get in to too many details, but on top of her admirable career (one not suitable for the undisciplined or slow-witted) I understand she dedicates her time to other club activities that require serious commitment as well as volunteering time in independent media. And not just listlessly plugging in time here and there, but taking on leadership roles and becoming absolutely integral to the popular organization's operations and therefore continuing existence (I volunteer there as well and none of that is hyperbole). She's a downright impressive person and I can only hope this restore serves her well.
Glove did have some wear from a bit of use, laces were dry-rotting from age, and leather was ingrained with dirt and needed a fair amount of conditioning help from decades of storage. Overall, it still was in great shape and I had no reservations about it's eventual game use which isn't at all that common of a legitimate expectation with vintage pieces. And all the reason for being initially nervous when she first handed the piece over.
I very carefully cleaned the potentially brittle leather (which luckily it wasn't) with multiple stages of Ballplayers Balm Cleaner and then set it through many light applications of the company's Pro conditioner. Lace I used was a "vintage" selection via the highly regarded BuyFastpitchGloves. Emulates the thinner width of vintage style lace and coloring while still maintaining modern gameplay gauge and integrity. I also extracted the old, hardened and unevenly distributed palm adhesive from within and added a bit of the best on the market in GluvLuv's proprietary brand of oven-heated glove grease to reshape and hold the pocket. Lacing pattern may not look like much on this piece, but it's actually a fairly complex and neat system especially in the web. Seems a lot of these 60’s-70's gloves had similarly complex systems and I have a feeling they went out of style because of just how difficult they are to figure out. Modern sectional webs can be tricky enough for any kid or parent trying to bootleg a fix. Those will generally consist of a few laces varying from 15-40". This one utilizes a single lace system over 60" long with a lot of unexpected doubling back and subtle pathways. Was a lot of fun figuring it out. If it was a head scratcher at times for me, I can only imagine a kid or parent pulling hair out, eventually relenting and 'accidentally' running it over with a lawnmower instead. Along the lines of planned obsolescence, except in this case planned crazy-making, which I wouldn't doubt served as incentive behind all the elaborate patterns of the time.
Can't wait to see it glow on the field.
