"Gamer"

     In baseball, a “Gamer” can be either of two things.  First, players have several gloves in various stages from brand new to worn out. Brand new gloves are used during practice and they are oiled, pounded upon and shaped until they are ‘just right.’  Worn out gloves are either retired or generally shelved, but rarely thrown away.   Players will always have one perfectly broken in glove that is used in actual games, i.e. their “Gamer.”  Everyday players will generally break in a new gamer every year, but some will actually use the same glove through a whole career, simply re-lacing or repairing it as needed.  Walt Weiss, who played for the Braves for several years had a glove that was so ratty and actually stinky, that it was dubbed “the Monster.”

      Most players are reluctant to lend or even let anyone touch their gamers.  I remember in the 1980’s my friend Doug DeCinces, the Orioles third baseman (after Brooks Robinson) quite reluctantly, but wanting to be a good sport, loaned his gamer during a pre-game promotion to “Bowser,” the lead singer of the old doo-wop group “Sha Na Na.”  Bowser was clowning around and thought it would be funny to put grease in Doug’s glove. Unamused, Doug went ballistic. Bowser not only acted stupid; he was stupid.

     The second thing a “Gamer” can be is a hard-nosed player who gives everything he has to win the game; he will get dirty, bloody and even risk injury to make a play.  Cal Ripken was the ultimate “gamer” and this painting is actually the first one I did as a prelude to a major piece, “American Hero.”  Here is a glove that is basically the same model as Cal’s gamer (it is actually my baseball glove, which I still use), and a photo of Cal diving for a ball to make a play:  the ultimate “Gamer.”

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