Giant 1927 Old-Time Four-Fingered Baseball Glove (San Francisco, California)

USA / California / San Francisco / San Francisco, California

The glove is a 26-foot-high, 32-foot-wide and 12-foot-deep replica of a vintage 1927 four-fingered baseball mitt. It is 36 times the size of the original model and weighs 20,000 pounds.

The glove, designed in Berkeley and built in Oakland, provides fans with a close-up view of a timeless baseball icon.

The glove, instantly recognizable as a part of the game, will be a fun target for big league hitters. Although, if hitters reach this glove, they will have hit a ball approximately 501 feet and it won't be an out.

The mitt was constructed by scanning the original model to create a 3-D file showing every stitch and wrinkle. A computer router, using the 3-D model as a guide, carved the outline of the glove from high-density foam. The foam was cut into blocks to make them easier to handle and covered with fiberglass before being assembled, attached to a steel infrastructure, and hand sculpted by artists.

The artists who crafted the glove took great measures to maintain the authentic look and feel of the original mitt. The surface is a flexible epoxy compound that was molded and treated to look like worn leather. The grommets are real brass and the stitching, done by hand, uses marine grade rope.

Local artisans put in hundreds of hours on this sculpture to make sure the right materials were selected for the glove's display.
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Coordinates:   37°46'44"N   122°23'18"W
This article was last modified 6 years ago