I have before me the first baseball mitt that was ever bought for me. The brand is Hutch, it was made in Korea. It was bought new in the greater New York City metropolitan area, probably in 1972-1973.
It has the signature of someone named Jim Rodgers (spelled with a “d”) on it but I have been unable to find any information on a former MLB player with that name. Even at the time I remember wondering who the heck he was.
Can anyone help?
(Now that I look closely at the extremely faded signature it could possibly be “Tim Rodgers”. Still can’t find any info).
You’ve heard about the guy who doesn’t own a digital camera or cell phone? That last guy in North America without one?
That’s me.
I thought about the Celtics coach. Would it be possible at that time that someone who was succesful in one sport might try to cross their brand, as it were, over to another sport?
Or maybe it was someone who never played MLB? A college star, maybe?
Except that he spells his name differently and died 70 years before the mitt was made…
Since there has never been a Jim Rodgers in major league baseball, I figure it is either just some guy who owned the mitt, or at best a minor leaguer who was never called up.
If it was a baseball mitt signed by Jimmie Rodgers, that would be cool.
Best I could find is a book on amazon.com by Mel Stottlemyre that mentions a coach named Jim Rodgers.
At first I thought that Hutch may have sold gloves with custom signatures, but there are too many on eBay for that. Seems so odd to sell a glove with a no-name signature.
I have no answers, but my only guess was that it could have been the designer of that model. In any case, for a more authoritative answer, try at this site:
Sorry if that wasn’t clear, but yes. I am the first and only owner of the mitt. It came new from the store with the signature already on it. It’s part of the markings the manufacturer stamped on it.
Neptunian Slug I will try that forum. If I get any kind of an answer I will report back here.
Yes, that is the same eBay listing I linked to in my third post in this thread. It’s essentially identical except for being a lefty glove, mine is a righty. Also mine is in worse shape, all the lettering on mine is much more faded.
There might be slight differences between that one and mine in the design of the webbing, I don’t have mine here with me right now to check.
You can see the “Jim Rodgers” signature quite clearly if you click on the large picture, it is the same as the signature in my glove.
