Plaza Sport Shop · Washington, D.C. · 1949

Sale! Baseball Gloves

March 1949, glove season in Washington. The Plaza Sport Shop is not waiting for the '49 World Series to bring prices down, and above all it is not pitching curves. A Joe De Maggio fielder's glove for 10.70, a Bill Dickey catcher's mitt for 21.85, soft ball models for the other diamond game, and free parking at Star Plaza.

On March 25, 1949, the Plaza Sport Shop took most of a column in the Evening Star to announce glove season: “Sale! BASEBALL GLOVES.”

The pitch has real snap to it: “We’re not waiting for the ‘49 World Series before bringing prices down! We’re doing it RIGHT NOW, when you need the savings most! Above all, we’re not ‘pitching curves’… These are all Famous Make Baseball Gloves, professional and junior models, made by the outstanding manufacturers in the world.” The banners overhead name the big three, A. G. Spalding and Bros., Rawlings and Wilson, and two enormous gloves float in the margins to make the point.

The price list reads like a lineup card of the era. Spalding offered the Joe Cronin at $15.00 and the “Joe De Maggio” at $10.70, spelling and all, plus the Snuffy Stirnweiss and the Pinky Higgins. Rawlings countered with the Mort Cooper, the Ken Keltner, the Martin Marion and the George Case, the old Senators speedster. Behind the plate you could catch like Bill Dickey for $21.85 on the Pro Model’s best day. And scattered through the columns, quietly, sit the “Soft Ball” gloves, DW5, DW10 and DW15, because in 1949 a Washington sporting goods store stocked for both diamond games without making a fuss about the difference. The leagues themselves, as we’ve been seeing all month, were far less relaxed about it.

The bottom corner signs off in the slanted house style: “PLAZA SPORT SHOP, 10th & E Sts. N.W.,” open Saturday to 7, “Free Parking Star Plaza.” Complete stock of uniforms, bats, balls and equipment “at Special Team Prices,” which is how a corner store said play ball in 1949.