Talking to the Master of Gloves

I have been with Rawlings for over 30 years now. I was first hired to manage the baseball glove manufacturing factory. In that position I worked very closely with the current glove designer at that time, Mr Rollie Latina, who was only the second designer in Rawlings history. When he retired in the early 80's, I became the third. Over the years I have started a plant in Haiti, have worked for Rawlings-Japan, and spent 3 years on the Rawlings Sports Caravan with which I visited every state and many All-Star and World series games. During this time, I also went to Spring Training where I worked with pro players and gained a lot of knowledge as to what was really needed at that level.

My favorite part of the job now is working with young kids; from helping parents pick the right glove to showing the kids how to use and take care of their new gloves. I also enjoy handling calls concerning the history of Rawlings gloves and sometimes restoring a really old glove for some persuasive Rawlings fan.

My favorite gloves are any of the old style Heart of the Hide gloves which I hope to offer again on our web site in the future. My favorite player to work with was probably Ozzie Smith who was always a classy player, but I really enjoyed A-Rod when I would break in his gloves for him. Craig Biggio was also a favorite of mine. I could keep on listing them so I will have to stop there.

If anyone has any questions/comments for me, let me know.

Bob Clevenhagen
Rawlings Master Glove Craftsman