When I was eleven years old a friend of my mum gave me a Cooper Black Diamond #240 baseball glove. It was pretty used then (1979) so I estimate 1975 as a reasonable date of creation. This makes my baseball glove about 38 years old. Before that it was a cow grazing blissfully unaware of its future.
I have had this baseball glove for 34 years. I have never owned another baseball glove. It is amazing as far as I am concerned. Nothing I own comes remotely close to have survived for as long as Cooper. Excepting my mum and sister’s Angel, Susan and April, Cooper even pre-dates most people in my life…it beats out my best friend Mike by three years.
I am not sure why. I have lost books, CDs, clothes, shoes, friends, and family but Cooper continues to hang on where most else has vanished.
Cooper fits like a glove – literally. Which means it must have fit pretty bad when I got it. But for some reason I hung onto it.
I left it outside one winter in the backyard. It was eventually covered by snow and ice and forgotten about until one warm spring day I caught a glimpse of its black leather peering at me from its melting tomb. I dug it up and left it on the porch to thaw out. The next morning I grabbed my baseball and ran into the porch, picked up the wet glove and crammed my hand into it. Seconds later about 100 earwigs climbed out all over my fingers and hand. After that Cooper languished in the porch for about another month until I had the courage to investigate whether its inhabitants had moved on – they had.
After that Cooper was cared for a little better in that it was kept inside instead of left outside.
I find it strange that this inanimate construction of leather has survived as long as it has. I use it every summer. It has been used by my kids and I bring it to Itsy’s baseball practices and games. I am tempted to anthropomorphize it by imbuing it with feelings and memory.
Of course I won’t but it does have a memory of sorts. It has been there like some dead witness to the great quakes in my life. Silent witness to the beauties and the beasts.
It is like a bookmark moving page to page through my days.
Harnessing Chaos 
My dad had the same glove, which he probably bought in the early seventies. He gave it to me when I was a kid, and it was one of the things I took with me when I moved away from home in ’98.
I’ve held on to it through half a dozen moves over the years, despite the fact that I’ve played zero (0) minutes of baseball over that time.
Anyway, my six year old is getting interested in baseball, and this weekend grandma and grandpa are visiting. So I put the glove on him, and told him to go show it to grandpa. There was a half second where you could see my dad thinking “I had a glove just like that” which gave way suddenly to “holy cow, that’s my glove”. I don’t know anything about what fields my dad played on, or which kids were on his teams, but a bunch of those memories must have gone through his head those first few seconds, probably for the first time in decades.
It would be interesting to know whether my kids will eventually glom onto any piece of ephemera from my life. But it would also be nice to be surprised some day…
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Awesome story!! I bet your Dad was melting inside!
My son has this same glove, only in tan. It belonged to his Grandpa who has passed on and my son never met. My son (13) wears it when he pitches. It’s like he’s got his grandpa out on the mound with him!
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I had a glove like this… My second glove – the first being for a younger, smaller hand – it was one of several my Dad had. Worn-in and flexible from countless throws unknown to me, it was one of those prized-possessions your Dad gives you.
Unfortunately I lost it ca. 2002: I believe I left it in the locker-room after gymclass, and after school I couldn’t find it. I suspectemd one kid of taking it, because I believe he was still in there as we left. Hoping a gym teacher picked it up and with the school’s stock of random gloves, I asked to check if mine was mixed amongst them, but again disappointed… Why someone would want to take someone else”s used glove is beyond me; It had our name on it two or three times in white marker.
20-something years later… I still think about it. Wish it came back into my life!
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I have a Cooper 240 Black Diamond LH glove for sale
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I have the exact same glove and have used it for about the same amount of time. I “stole” it from my father when I was a kid. My daughter uses it now and I came across your article while searching for a used glove for her (or probably me if she gets her way ha!)
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I also have a mint condition 1970’s Cooper black diamond glove. Always conditioned with mink oil and kept bound with a ball in the pocket to keep it’s form ! Now time for it to be sold to someone who appreciates it!
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I have the same glove. Got it for my 12th birthday. I will be 56 in July. Still have the glove and still use it playing catch with my granddaughter.
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Hi. Given the same glove by a neighbour because my kid is now obsessed with baseball. I’m his catching mate and I use the glove. Stored for a very long time and hardly ever used it’s almost mint. Smelly bad but Rawlings oils are bringing it back. I need to get better at catching. When the ball slaps into the palm it doesn’t do a lot to stop the pain 🙂
I know we’ve had it for only a couple of months but it already feels like it’s a family heirloom. We’re in the UK so playing baseball takes dedication. Not many clubs and not many facilities. We’re lucky and have joined Herts Baseball. A great club run by lovers of the game. Quite a few Yanks and Canadians in our ranks and lots of bright young hopes. I’m now a Cubs fan, had to pick one, looks like they’re on the up!!
Go Cubs!
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