Rawlings Gold Glove Special

This is a Glove tag for the Rawlings World Series Gold Glove Award Special. The Rawlings Fastback baseball glove was endorsed by Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder, Roberto Clemente, and Baltimore Orioles third baseman, Brooks Robinson. The Rawlings World Series Gold Glove Award Special was sold in stores from 1971-1974. As mentioned in the glove tag and magazine ad below, they had 23 Gold Gloves between them.

In theory the first and original glove was the "Gold Glove Special" sold in 1971. Rawlings marketing the two Gold Glovers together in speculation of an October Showdown in the World Series. The catalog number chosen for the glove that reads "Gold Glove Special" on the pinky finger, and pictures the Gold Glove Award in the pocket is "WSS" Most likely an acronym for World Series Special. If the two teams do not make it to the World Series the "Gold Glove Special" stays as is.

But, after the two teams make it to the World Series in Oct. of 1971 they changed the name of the glove to "World Series Special" as it reads on the pinky finger, using the World Series to add marketing power to the glove. Given that the gloves were manufactured in Japan and then had to be shipped to the states, it is very unlikely that the "World Series Special" gloves made it to stores before 1972.

The "World Series Special" Gloves are more common than the "Gold Glove Award" gloves as they were on the shelves for a longer period of time, 1972-1974. It seems that the "Gold Glove Award" gloves were exclusive to 1971. This is just speculation and more research need to be done to confirm this.

The front of the single fold, World Series Special glove tag pictures the Gold Glove Award. The back has a short history of the Gold Glove Award. The inside features Gold Glove bio's on both "The Human Vacuum cleaner" Brooks Robinson, and Roberto "Arriba" Clemente, picturing Robinson on the left and Clemente of the right.

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	Rawlings WSS Gold Glove Special	Roberto Clemente Brooks Robinson Gold Glove Special Glove Tag	Rawlings World Series Special magazine ad

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