A2000

[Stocking]

Anyone read this article in Saturdays Daily Hearld?

 

Memories of first Wilson A2000 fit Santo like a glove

Daily Herald Reports

Posted 4/3/2004

 

By Burt Constable

 

Shopping for my kids' baseball mitts, I am infused with memories of my first glove affair - the Wilson A2000.

 

While most gloves fall into a general category, the Wilson A2000 stands as baseball's Holy Grail for generations of players. Like a first kiss or a first car, the Wilson A2000 lives forever.

 

As a kid, I never dreamed of asking my parents to shell out $70 for a baseball mitt. But as a working college student, one of the first purchases I made was the Wilson A2000 softball model. Today's A2000, A2002 for lefties, or any of the specialized versions of the glove cost about $170.

 

Making small talk about baseball with my kids' barber led to a long, soulful tale about his years of desire and eventual bliss when he finally (well into adulthood) got his A2000.

 

"I hear that all the time," says Jim Hackett, vice president of baseball and softball for Wilson Sporting Goods Co., which is headquartered near O'Hare. "People ask me all the time about the A2000, and I know they haven't played baseball in 20 years, or 30 or 40 years. I think you'd have to say it's the most well-known glove in baseball."

 

For Cubs great Ron Santo, the Wilson A2000 is the only mitt.

 

"When I was a kid, I don't even know how I came up with a glove," Santo says, noting that his family was too poor to buy him one. He figures that he used the same hand-me-down or gift mitt ("I don't even remember what kind it was") from Little League through high school.

 

Life changed when he became a professional ballplayer.

 

"As soon as I got into pro ball, all the glove companies came out," Santo says, recalling the free cornucopia of leather laid before him. He chose the Wilson A2000.

 

In the book "Glove Affairs: The Romance, History, and Tradition of the Baseball Glove," author Noah Liberman titles one chapter "Perfection ... Finally: The Slow Arrival of the Wilson A2000."

 

The Wilson A2000 is 72 pieces of leather and fabric assembled by hand in a factory in Japan. "There are about 2¨ man-hours in every glove," Hackett says.

 

Unveiled in 1957, the glove "enabled the fielder, for really the first time, to make a one-handed play," Hackett says.

 

Beginning with his 1960 Cubs rookie season at age 20 and throughout his Gold Glove career as the best-fielding third baseman in the league, Santo made thousands of plays with his beloved A2000. A 1965 magazine ad for the glove touted it as "Ron Santo's rally-stopper."

 

The old third baseman and current Cubs radio broadcaster speaks lovingly about the marriage of "soft yet firm" that made the glove his favorite. His previous mitt featured webbing that looked "like that game kids play," Santo says, describing the open, tic-tac-toe pattern of the pocket.

 

"The webbing was together on the A2000," Santo, now 64, says of the gloves that were custom-made for his large hands and his position. "It was a little larger than a glove for a shortstop or second baseman."

 

While some players maintain the same mitt for years, Santo used a new A2000 every season.

 

"Every spring, I'd break in a new glove for the following year," Santo says. He'd use one glove for spring training, then store it for a year as he switched back to his regular season glove that he had broken in at spring training the year before.

 

"Right away, I would soak it in water to soften the leather," Santo says of the new glove. "Then I'd put in two baseballs - one in the webbing and one in the pocket. When you're catching line drives hit as hard as they come at you in the major leagues, you don't want to catch them in the palm."

 

A year later, that glove would become his game glove. And the old mitt?

 

"Believe it or not, I gave them away to kids I knew, or a neighbor kid, or a hospital," Santo says.

 

Thanks to Santo's generosity, somewhere out there are some adults with extra special Wilson A2000 memories. 

 

 

Anywho it made me think of my first A2000 I got right before High School. I had played travel ball for as long as i could remember. I went to Summer Baseball camp for the high school before my freshmen year. God I hated baseball, felt pushed to play by my father. Needless to say when spring rolled around, I didnt try out for the team, but opted to tell my family i was cut. how do i regret this. A year removed from HS, I found my love for baseball again. I went to a sox game in 2000 and was sitting upper deck. A vendor asked if i was a collector. Said he has Ray Durhams glove and would sell me it. Ask to see it, then proceed to offer him $20. No i didnt believe this to be ray durhams glove, but it was a mint pro stock A2000 for twenty dollars!! Upon getting to my seat i showed my friends the glove. Written on the side was good old number 32, Kip Wells. If anyone has a connection their is a stock number if its possible to look up, but i believe to to be. why else would a vendor be carring a $200 plus glove around and sell it for a measily $20. Now dont hate, but Kip did go on to lose his next start......am i to blame?!?! If it is his glove, he needs to learn how to break in a glove. The pocket is horrific. Lots of words, sorry thought someone might enjoy this.

 

Anyone have memories of their glove?

[WHarris1]

I don't have many memories of mine, but I do have an A2000.

[Chisoxfn]

I had the same glove for about 8 years. I couldn't tell you which kind it was. But I'm a lefty so I know that much and it had Don Mattingly in the pocket.

 

I remember putting the shaving cream on it, putting it under my bed with the ball in it. By the time I was done that glove was so freaking broken in, it was beautiful.

 

Around high school I had outgrown the glove, so I had to get a new one and it just wasn't the same. It took me forever to wear the glove in like my previous one had been.

 

Everytime we played, everyone used to love my glove cause it was so freaking perfectly molded. I still have both gloves.

 

The one I played most of my baseball with has like a Luis Polonia and Lance Parrish auto now.

 

Speaking of which, your story about baseball is pretty similar to mine. I hurt my arm to go along with it, but I just hated being pressured so much by my dad so I was just lazy and didn't bring my arm all the way back. My arms fine now, but I always have some regret cause I know I would of been a good player (not major league good), but I could of played college ball somewhere. And, I know I love playing baseball. I guess the whole thing was, it wasn't like I was playing for me, it was like I was playing for someone else and well, frankly, I don't like that.

[SoxFan1]

Dont have an A2000 but I know my first glove was an Easton Black Magic 12 in. Infielders Glove.