Batting gloves on cards?
 

I just acquired a large lot of '67s and I was going through them I noticed that most of the ballplayers who were holding a bat (as opposed to a glove or a headshot) were not wearing batting gloves. The ones that were (Olive, etc) seemed to be partial to plain black batting gloves.

So my question is, what is the earliest card picturing a player wearing a batting glove?

Bueller.....Bueller....Bueller..???

So I was interested in answering or beginning to answer your question. I looked at the 1957 topps set because of all the photos used. There are a lot of portraits but also a lot of batting poses. Of all the batting poses only one had a glove on. Frank Robinson rookie. Now a few thoughts on that...

Since the players were posing did nearly all not bother to put on a glove except the rookie frank robinson? Was it considered not Macho to wear a glove at that time?

So at least we are at 1957 now.

Never tried it myself, but I've heard that guys would pee on their hands to toughen them up - no need for batting gloves.

So maybe the question is: When did they outlaw peeing while in the on-deck circle?

Gloves ?
 

Moises Alou had a cheap alternative to gloves :)

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...bL._SY355_.jpg

Not the earliest, but I have always thought that the batting glove on Bill White in '69 Topps created a focal point (not my card). Hawk Harrelson was said to be the first player to use a batting glove in '63 or '64 (actually a golf glove). No cards that I can find of him in the 60's showed him with his glove.

Edited because I just saw the post about the '57 Topps Robinson. I never noticed that.

I don't believe that Robby is wearing a batting glove on his '57 card-- looks like a sweat band to me. The coloration and detail seem to show his hand as just that--his hand. Also seems unlikely to me that they would have had color coordinated batting gloves that long ago. I believe black or white/cream would have been about it, at least for golf gloves (I'm not sure baseball batting gloves had even been marketed yet--maybe someone with old equipment catalogues can chime in).

As noted, Hawk is largely credited with wearing the first glove in a regulation game--a golf glove in 1963. However, a couple of others are alleged to have worn them in Spring training, and since that is when many of the photos were taken by Topps, cards before 1964 could depict them, but I am skeptical.

Edited to add: I didn't see any '65 Topps cards showing batting gloves after a quick skim, but saw 4 from the 1966 set, which at least pre-dates the Oliva in the OP: Bob Allison, Walt Bond, Joe Azcue and rookie Bobby Murcer.

Edited again: 1964 seems to have two cards with batting gloves: Lee Walls and Lou Jackson.

Well I stand corrected, I think. Johnny Romano is wearing what looks like a batting glove on his left hand in his 1961 Topps Card. Definitely a Spring training shot, and looks cold too, as he's wearing a windbreaker under his uniform. I would definitely call this a batting glove except that Romano was a catcher and may have been wearing this just to protect his receiving hand, especially early in the Spring. Still, since he grabbed a bat for the card photo, this seems to qualify as a batting glove.

I believe this has been discussed here before. A search might reveal the answer from the previous psosts.

I would think due to the political climate at the time some of those black batting gloves likely had additional meaning in the late sixties.

It would have been an allowable way for some players to make a statement.

I just looked at the Robinson again and I still think it's a glove that is white at the wrist and a reddish brown skin toned color at the hands.

It really looks just like a wristband to me...
Attachment 197386

I think I stand corrected. So that leaves 0 57 topps with gloves.

1961 Romano
 

Good one Todd

I have watched all of the old Homerun Derby films several times and many of the players are wearing gloves. They were golf gloves, I am not aware of any baseball specific batting gloves being made until much later. You can see the Wilson ball marker on some of them in the films.

Good catch Mike--it appears that several cards from the Home Run Derby set depict players wearing gloves, including Hank Aaron wearing two. Given the specialty format of that event and that it occurred outside of the MLB season it's not surprising that they would be wearing batting gloves. So now we're back to at least late 1959 or early 1960 for the earliest card.

I always thought the '66 Bob Allison card was cool with the double black batting gloves. Sorry don't have a scan.

Allison
 

Thanks Al. Didn't see that look too much in the 60's.

Probably not relevant (is anything we ever post here relevant? No.), but possibly of tangential interest,
here are a couple of much older shots of guys wearing batting gloves (not cards, and possibly not worn in
actual game action) that we recently ran across while catching up on UniWatch [ http://tinyurl.com/nnman57/ ] --
Tony Cuccinello here:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CLCrhqbXAAAruQu.jpg:large
and another Bee (not sure who) here:
http://tinyurl.com/p7e8zpg