That would be the expected question from Dad whenever the Brooks boys bought something that appeared to cost more than, oh, ten dollars.
Son #2
So when Son #2 brought home an exquisite Wilson “Sparky Lyle autographed” baseball glove, model RS28, it was agreed upon that the glove cost $12. (RS28 stood for Red Sox 28, Lyle’s team and uniform number in the late sixties.) It actually cost, to the best of my recollection, $26, but we didn’t pay $26 for baseball gloves in Dad’s world. So on the record, it was $12. Ma was in on this, by the way.
$199.99!
The Wilson RS28 wasn’t quite the legendary A2000, but it was pretty close. So when I saw that the current incarnation of the A2000 costs $199.99 at Dick’s Sporting Goods, my eyeballs damn near fell out of my head. How would we ever have explained that?
I noticed this in the Dick’s circular in the Sunday paper…my eye caught by the colorful display of bats. One bat is on sale for $299.99. FOR A BASEBALL BAT. And that’s a hundred bucks off the original price! From the web site: The Easton® Stealth IMX® adult baseball bat features an IMX® composite construction that offers maximum energy transfer and the ultimate vibration reduction.
So that explains it. I can hear it now.
“But Dad, the bat features composite construction that offers maximum energy transfer and the ultimate vibration reduction!”
“Go to your room and don’t come out until you’re 18.”
Forty-something years later, my brother still has the RS28. And in retrospect, Dad undoubtedly knew it cost more than $12. But $199.99?
(By the way, it is perfectly acceptable to spend $199.99 or even $299.99 on a golf club guaranteed to shave strokes from your game.)
The Brooks File 
The difference, Gerry, is that the $199.99 model is a baseball glove. You had a mitt. So did I. A Ron Hansen, Deep-Well Pocket, Edge-U-Cated Heel mitt. The best friend a boy could have. For the money, anyway.
And by the way, am I the only one who owned a three-fingered (plus one thumb) mitt. Back then conventional wisdom held that three-fingered mitts were for outfielders (along with a few victims of timing errors at Fourth-of-July celebrations) and four-fingered mitts were for infielders. Does this ring a bell?
It does, as does Ron Hansen, a fine fielding shortstop who succeeded and preceded Luis Aparicio at that position with the White Sox.
Now THAT is one boss fact.
My parents bought me my first glove ( A Billy Martin WIlson ) after my first dentist appointment. I was seven years old. The glove was purchased about a half hour after they dragged me kicking and screaming from Dr. Tederous’s office on Main Street in Easthampton, Mass.
These days parents drag their kids out of Dick’s. Kicking and screaming after hearing:
” We can’t afford that. ”
And. Kids’ parents are buying them $200 bats? What’s next? Base bags?
This is crazy.
My first: a Sears Ted Williams model. Come to think of it, every Sears glove was a Ted Williams model.
Lived in fear all summer that the “real” price would come out.
The “Ball Hawk” still lives on the hand of the “Drewster” when he goes out to play ball with his friends and always merits a chuckle when I see it being used.
It’s gotta be a little thin on the padding by now.
My first glove was a wilson “kirk Gibson” model. I got it when I was six and I still have it today, in fact it is in great working order. My next glove, a $250 outfileders glove, which I still own and use. If you care for it, it’ll last ya. Good leather makes such a difference. I’m with ya on the bats. You should see what some of my players come into the season with. The crazy thing: the bats last one season. Bats no, but money should never be an issue when it comes to gloves.
Glad to hear that you’ve matured, and a $299 club “shaves strokes off your game” 🙂 See you this summer… Greg’s been tuning up in Myrtle.
My first real glove was black in color. Way back then a black colored glove was as strange a sight as black colored snow. Not only was it black, it was a Japanese import, and that may have been even stranger than that black snow thing. Still have the glove, although black gloves and imports from Japan don’t seem quite so strange anymore. $300 bats are really dumb…..Now a $3000 spinnaker is absolutely fine.
Joe, you were ahead of your time.