Posted By:
Jeff Lichtman
NY Daily News - Feb 26, 2006
Carew drops ball with glove
Rod Carew was a heck of ballplayer, one of baseball's greatest hitters, a truly deserving Hall of Famer. But his knowledge of baseball gloves is apparently, well, bush league.
Vintage Authentics, a Minnesota-based memorabilia Web site, yanked a first baseman's mitt from its current auction last week because the glove, described by Carew as the one he used during his last season, actually wasn't even manufactured until more than a decade later.
Carew, whose 19-season career with the Twins and the Angels ended in 1985, inscribed the mitt with his signature and "1985 - Last ML First Base Glove." Wilson consumer relations specialist Ted Kochowicz, however, says the glove wasn't made until the late 1990s.
Carew signed a certificate of authenticity that accompanied the Wilson glove on Vintage Authentics' Web site. The glove also came with a "authentication official worksheet" from Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services, whose authenticator Dave Bushing graded the glove as "authentic."
Vintage Authentics executive Steve Jensen says gloves are tricky to authenticate. "We're toying with the idea of not accepting gloves," Jensen says. "We want to get things right. We don't want to make a quick buck. We want to make customers for life."