Golden Glove Award

Cal Ripken, Jr. received the Golden Glove Award in 1991 and 1992

About the Award

In a 1956 spring training survey, Elmer A. Blasco - employed by Rawlings Sporting Goods as advertising, public relations and sales manager - found that 83 percent of the active regular major league players wore Rawlings gloves or mitts. Noting that Hillerich & Bradsby (the major leagues’ leading baseball bat supplier) awarded Silver Bats to the leagues’ top hitters, Blasco reasoned that Rawlings ought to sponsor some sort of fielding award. After his idea was accepted by Rawlings’ management, Blasco contacted the Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis and obtained from them a hide of gold lame-tanned leather used to make ladies’ formal slippers. A glove was crafted from this hide, laced and stamped as a regular fielders glove, and attached to a metal fixture on a walnut base with an appropriate engraved plate.

Thus was born the Gold Glove Award. This award recognizes the importance of superior individual fielding performance to the advancement of baseball as America’s national game. Rawlings’ Annual Gold Glove Awards began with the 1957 season as a combined selection for both leagues. Beginning in 1958, separate teams were picked for each league.  Teams are selected by the managers and coaches, who can not vote for members of their own teams.