Alex Rodriguez "gamer" fielding glove ??

[mrw2161]

Hi everyone...

I am aware of the Upper Deck / Rawlings Pro6HF gloves that were a joint venture in where the "g" in Rodriguez was inverted to a "q" to prevent confusion to his real gamers. I have stumbled onto a lot of two Alex Rodriguez gloves, both I believe to be game used, but to be quite honest, no one, not even Alex or Rawlings could verify this, Rawlings did however give me a few details on the gloves, the Yankees have promised me that nothing has been stolen from their clubhouse, and these gloves, the Pro6HF and the ProRV23SO are both current models that Alex uses. Also in this small collection was a brand new Jason Giambi TPX first basemans glove, with name stitiched in white and a well-used Steve Karsay Rawlings Pro1000-9K. I believe that this entire group may have been stolen from a collection....does anyone remember seeing this group of gloves anywhere on the internet or such. I have photo matched all the gloves and I am relatively certain that they are authentic gloves.....I have placed the entire group on Ebay with hopes of finding out where these might have come from....I'm all ears....

[hblakewolf]

[quote=mrw2161;39223]Hi everyone...

I am aware of the Upper Deck / Rawlings Pro6HF gloves that were a joint venture in where the "g" in Rodriguez was inverted to a "q" to prevent confusion to his real gamers. I have stumbled onto a lot of two Alex Rodriguez gloves, both I believe to be game used, but to be quite honest, no one, not even Alex or Rawlings could verify this, Rawlings did however give me a few details on the gloves, the Yankees have promised me that nothing has been stolen from their clubhouse, and these gloves, the Pro6HF and the ProRV23SO are both current models that Alex uses. Also in this small collection was a brand new Jason Giambi TPX first basemans glove, with name stitiched in white and a well-used Steve Karsay Rawlings Pro1000-9K. I believe that this entire group may have been stolen from a collection....does anyone remember seeing this group of gloves anywhere on the internet or such. I have photo matched all the gloves and I am relatively certain that they are authentic gloves.....I have placed the entire group on Ebay with hopes of finding out where these might have come from....I'm all ears....[/quote]

Can you provide some additional information about the lot? How specifically did you "stumble" onto these? Alex could not "verify" that they were used-are we rto assume you somehow met him and asked for his opinion?

Any insight on the history of these is appreciated.

Thanks.
Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[3arod13]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...DME:L:RTQ:US:1

[PRiMeTiMe]

Im looking to buy a Pro-6HF.(Big ARod Fan) haha

What size gloves were the ones that you bought then sold? 12 or 12.25 inches?

[mrw2161]

Mr. Wolf,

Thanks for your inquiry, the place that they were obtained was a store of all places in the Los Angeles area. At this time, I do not want to disclose the name of the store as they are dealing with a bit of embarassment over the whole matter. I have left the tags on the gloves which are in the photos to ascertain their origin.

This is kind of like the person who bought a piece of art at a garage sale only to find out it was an original worth $500,000, similar in nature only not in $$.

I have spoken to SEVERAL sources within professional baseball circles who are all in agreement about the authenticity of the gloves, whether or not, they are game used, in my humble belief, cannot be ascertained by anyone, including Alex.

While many claim to be able to authenticate the usage of a glove, a average player uses anywhere for 2-5 gloves a season, some less, some more, what I was implying is I would be hard pressed to believe a player who could pick up a glove and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the glove was game used, not played catch with or a spring training glove, but used in a real game, I am sure some players might be able to but it has to be difficult at best.

I will be as honest and forthright as I can be on these gloves at the moment, obviously, whoever buys them will be surprised for what was paid and where they were located....

I hope this helps and look forward to speaking again soon...


Mark

[cjclong]

Do you know whether anyone has actually asked ARod if he can verify the gloves or are we just assuming he can't? It has been my experience that some players pay a great deal of attention to their bats, gloves, etc and are very good at identifying them while others pay little attention. Arod has always struck me as one who paid attention. I would think he would know if he had given a glove like that to someone , especially since there are two, and would certainly know if a glove was stolen from him personally.

[guDon]

Why don't you just send the gloves to his autograph rep to get them signed? Then you would hear what he had to say about them. Are you going to disclose the source of the gloves to the winning bidder?

[mrw2161]

Don,

Thanks for the inquiry. If I need to get them signed I can go to Anaheim when they get here in August or I could send the gloves to any one of my several friends who are currently playing major league baseball to do it for me. I would prefer to get it done in person so to "believe it when I see it mentality". As I have said in previous posts, I am NOT a collector, never have been and probably wont be....I love the game but don't know enough about collecting to get truly involved.

In answer to your question, yes all proof tags, receipts and a letter from the person who sold them as well) of the legitimate purchase of these gloves will be provided to the buyer and a canister of oxygen as well because they will lose their breath when they hear the story.

Mark

[mrw2161]

Okay, here is the most recent information on both gloves.

The Rawlings PRO-RV23SO was manufactured for Alex in August of 2006 per the date code on the glove. This glove was designed for and by Robin Ventura, thus the "RV", "23" stands for his uniform number and "SO" stands for Special Order. The glove would have been used late in the 2006 season which might explain the very minimal game usage, the sticky substance inside the palm area of the glove and over the pointer finger leads me to believe that this was a game-ready glove and very probably a game used glove. This glove might also have been used this season as well but hard to explain how the glove found it's way to the West Coast unless it came on the trip to Oakland on April 13, 14 and 15th. I have a call into the visiting clubhouse in Oakland that I will probably wont speak to until Monday.

The Pro-6HF has been examined by several people and I will abide by their instructions, this glove should be considered game-used and shows exceptional game wear. The glove is missing several things found on stock gloves and this only adds to it's mystique. I will not disclose what things are missing as it might be a tool used by authenticators and it is not my knowledge to disclose in this case. If this offends, then I apologize but the world of collectibles does not belong to me, I am a visitor here and have learned more about gloves than I knew existed, to those of you who have helped me with this, I send a sincere thank you.

I will continue to answer any and all questions to the best of my ability, however the details of the EXACT circumstances on how these gloves ended up in my hands will remain private until after the gloves have switched hands and that the buyer is in accordance with the details being released. I ASSURE you these gloves were not stolen, CERTAINLY not by me, but I suppose they might have been lifted from a clubhouse somewhere but I cannot attest to this. The gloves might have been given to someone and they just didn't know the value, these circumstances only add to the gloves sentimental value, I am having a hard time thinking about parting with these...

Talk to all of you on the circuit....

Mark

[mrw2161]

I have received alot of questions and comments regarding when Alex might have used this glove, here are some observations and information......Alex probably used this glove last season, there are several photos of Alex using this glove from Spring Training, World Baseball Classic and the majority of the 2006 season. In late August, Alex began using a PRO-23RVSO and finished the season with that glove. There are also photos of him using it against the Red Sox and Blue Jays in September 2006. There photos of him using the glove in late August as well. This is the glove he used in the ALDS with the against the Detroit Tigers. This actual glove was made in August for Alex, I would assume that there were no early August photos of him wearing the glove. Somewhere between August 10th and 26th, 2006, the switch was made to the PRO-RV23SO

In 2006 chronological order, here is a list of the gloves Alex used last season:
Spring Training - PRO-6HF / World Baseball Classic - PRO-6HF / 2006 Yankees Season - PRO-6HF (April-August) / 2006 Yankees Season (August through Playoffs) PRO-RV23SO (Black)

For thos of you who would like to research this on your own, I suggest that you go to Getty-Images.com (http://editorial.gettyimages.com/Editorial/Sports.aspx) and conduct a search on Alex Rodriguez, this will show all news photos of Alex over the course of the 2006 season and into this season, it covers Alex's baseball career and personal life, and there are several photos of Alex using both gloves. This is a very time consuming project so do it when you have a some time.

I hope this answers alot of the questions I am getting asked, I have now developed a severe case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and will be sending all of you a partial bill for treatment....lol

Mark