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30-514: Rawlings may refer to: Rawlings (company) , a U.S. sports equipment company Rawlings, Maryland , an unincorporated community in Allegany County, Maryland Rawlings (surname) , including a list of people with the name See also [ edit ] Rawlins (disambiguation) Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with

60-538: A brief period in the 1980s, Spalding was also a designer of aftermarket automotive wheels . The company was founded in 1876 when Albert Spalding was a pitcher and manager of an early professional baseball team in Chicago, the Chicago White Stockings . The company standardized early baseballs and developed the modern baseball bat , a derivation of the cricket bat . The Spalding "League Ball"

90-519: A contract that would have Rawlings manufacture baseballs to sell with the Spalding logo. When this agreement ended in 1977, Rawlings began using its own logo, becoming the official supplier of the major leagues (producing separate balls for both the American and National Leagues from 1977 to 1999, and since 2000, a single ball for all of Major League Baseball), succeeding Spalding , which had been

120-542: A designer of aftermarket automotive wheels . Spalding developed its first basketball in 1894 based on the design of a baseball, and is currently a leading producer. Spalding was the official game ball supplier to the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1983 to 2021 , when the league reunited with Wilson after 37 years. In 2006, Spalding and the NBA announced that they would create

150-823: A massive trust called the American Bicycle Company which controlled 65% of the bicycle business in the US. By 1900, Spalding was selling dumbbells , Indian clubs , and punching bags . During 1916, Spalding was selling a wide variety of sports-related items, including clothing (athletic shirts, belts, pads, hats, jackets, jerseys, pants, shoes, and swimming suits), barbells, fencing blades and foils, golf clubs, guy robes, measuring tapes, pulleys and weights, rowing machines, track equipment (discus, hurdles, hammers, javelins, poles for vaulting, shotputs, and stop watches), and whistles. By 1919, A.G. Spalding & Brothers had developed infantry and cavalry fencing masks for

180-698: A multi-year deal with the National Football League for products such as tent canopies, grills, and chairs. This will also include non-exclusive tailgate products such as coolers, stadium seats, and footballs. Rawlings currently sponsors numerous collegiate baseball teams in the NCAA . Rawlings sponsors the Rawlings Big Stick Award, which is presented to the American Legion Baseball "player who accumulated

210-400: A new NBA Official Game Ball for the 2006–07 NBA season, with interlocking segments and made with a synthetic leather instead of the real thing. However, many NBA players complained that the new composite ball became extremely slick after use, wouldn't bounce as high, bounced awkwardly off the rim and backboard, and cut their fingers. In response, the NBA reverted to the old leather balls (with

240-688: Is credited with introducing football shoulder pads in 1902, and the first all-weather football. The Horween Leather Company has provided Rawlings with leather since 1929. In 2003, Horween was providing leather for 3,000 Rawlings baseball gloves annually, and half of professional baseball players were using baseball gloves made from Horween leather. In 2003, K2 Inc. acquired Rawlings. In 2005 Rawlings corporate headquarters were moved from Fenton, Missouri , to Town and Country, Missouri . In 2007, Jarden acquired K2 Inc. On December 14, 2015, Newell Rubbermaid announced that it would acquire Jarden for over $ 15 billion of cash and stock. The combined company

270-526: The Callaway Golf Company later the same year. In April 2006, Berkshire Hathaway announced a merger with Russell Corporation (including Spalding), which was finalized in August 2006 for approximately $ 600 million. Spalding has manufactured balls for baseball , softball , American football , soccer , volleyball , tennis , and golf . For a brief period in the 1980s, Spalding was also

300-675: The Horween Leather Company supplied leather to Spalding those balls. The company was one of the first to use high-profile athletes to endorse its products when tennis player Pancho Gonzales was signed to an exclusive endorsement contract in 1951. Spalding sells softballs through its subsidiary Dudley Sports. In 1892 Spalding created the Spalding Athletic Library , which sold sports and exercise books through its American Sports Publishing Company, also founded that year. The first book published

330-765: The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) states, "It lasted for many years and enjoyed the greatest success of any publication of its kind." Advertisements inside books available from Spalding included archery , athletics (track and field; all around; cross country running ; and marathon ), badminton , baseball , basketball , bicycling, bowling , boxing , canoeing , cricket , croquet , curling , fencing , (American) football, golf , gymnast, handball , hockey, jujutsu , lacrosse , lawn sports, polo, pushball , quoits , racquetball , rowing , rugby, skating, soccer, squash , swimming , tennis , tumbling , volleyball , and wrestling . Bodybuilding books included

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360-546: The U.S. Government . During World War II the company joined five other firms to form the New England Small Arms Corporation for manufacture of M1918 Browning Automatic Rifles . A.G. Spalding, as a subcontractor to Sprague Electric Co., also produced parts for the "toothpick" capacitors that were used with the VT proximity fuse . From the early 1930s through the mid-1940s Spalding produced

390-661: The Credenda bicycle wheel for Spalding. Spalding chose Chicopee because it was the home of the Overman Wheel Company since it acted as their distributor in the Western USA, and Mr. Overman contracted with Lamb to make wheels for its lower-end products. Production of bicycles continued at the Chicopee plant through the latter part of the 19th century, but in 1899 A.G. Ben Spalding sold its bicycle division to

420-578: The Lamb Knitting Machine Company of Chicopee Falls , Massachusetts, and renamed it the Lamb Manufacturing Company. It used this purchase to consolidate its ice skate manufactory from Newark and its gymnasium goods manufactory from Philadelphia to the Chicopee plant. Lamb, primarily engaged in manufacturing knitting machines , rifles , and egg-beaters , had been fulfilling a contract since 1890 to produce

450-632: The National League's. Since 1977 the official ball for MLB has been made by Rawlings . From 1981, in a partnership with the Toyo Rubber Company of Japan , Spalding designed a series of aftermarket automotive wheels known as the "Message" series. It was one of these wheels, the Message II, purportedly described by the company as like a " steam locomotive piston " which won awards from publications such as Motorfan Magazine as

480-531: The United States, with the factory still open. Rawlings began providing the hometown St. Louis Cardinals with gloves in 1906. In 1920 , Bill Doak , a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals , suggested that a web be placed between the first finger and the thumb in order to create a pocket. This design soon became the standard for baseball gloves. Doak patented his design and sold it to Rawlings. His design became

510-544: The best spoke type wheel and reader's overall choice. Wheels bearing the Spalding name are known to have been manufactured through to at least 1986. In August 1996, Spalding was acquired by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts . Spalding became a division of the Russell Corporation in 2003 —exclusive of its golf operations (which included the Top-Flite , Ben Hogan and Strata brands ), which were eventually bought by

540-693: The dumbbell, Indian club , medicine ball, and pulley weights. Sporting books for organizations included Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), IC4A , National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Olympics, public schools, and the YMCA. Spalding produced a mail-order catalog that provided a description, price, and picture of their sports equipment, sports books, and exercise books. A couple of examples are "How to Play Golf" for 25 cents, "How to Play Basketball" at 10 cents, and "How to Train for Bicycling" at 10 cents. Spalding Co. purchased Wright & Ditson Co. in 1892 and A.J. Reach Co. in 1889. For several years after

570-592: The most total bases." Spalding (sports equipment) Spalding is an American sports equipment manufacturing company. It was founded by Albert Spalding in Chicago in 1876 as a baseball manufacturer, and is today headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky . It sells softballs through its subsidiary Dudley Sports. In the past, Spalding has manufactured balls for other sports, including American football , soccer , volleyball, tennis, and golf. For

600-589: The official game pucks for the National Hockey League. Spalding produced the well-known " Spaldeen " high-bounce rubber ball, said to be a re-use of defective tennis ball cores, that was sold to city children from 1949. In baseball, Spalding manufactured the official ball of the Major Leagues through the 1976 season, using the Reach brand on American League balls and the Spalding trademark on

630-727: The old eight-panel pattern) on January 1, 2007. Prior to the AFL–NFL merger , Spalding produced the American Football League 's game ball, the J5V (or J5-V), which was 1 ⁄ 4  in (0.64 cm) narrower and 1 ⁄ 4  in (0.64 cm) longer than the NFL football, "The Duke" by Wilson . The company was the official game ball supplier of the first and second incarnations Arena Football League , an indoor American football league, from 2004 until its 2019 shutdown;

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660-709: The precursor to modern gloves, and enabled Rawlings to become the preferred glove of professional players. In 1955, Spalding bought Rawlings, and began using it to manufacture baseballs. In 1957, the company introduced the Gold Glove award, which became the major award for baseball. It also sponsors the Minor League Baseball (MiLB) " Rawlings Woman Executive of the Year " award. Thirteen years after acquiring it, an antitrust investigation forced Spalding to sell Rawlings again, but as it did so Spalding set up

690-538: The purchases, Wright & Ditson and A.J. Reach continued to publish sports books separately from the Spalding Athletic Library name. Professional baseball player George Wright co-founded Wright & Ditson Co.; and professional baseball player Al Reach founded A.J. Reach Co. The Spalding Baseball Guides were published under A.G. Spalding & Bros. until 1893–1894, and starting in 1894–1895 by American Sports Publishing Company (but not using

720-405: The self defense series, Jiu Jitsui with poses by A Minami and K Koyama. The Spalding Athletic Library covered a variety of sports, exercises, and organizations. The Brooklyn Daily Eagle newspaper stated regarding this collection, "devoted to all athletics pastimes, indoor and outdoor, and is the recognized American cyclopedia of sport". The company's last publication was in 1941. An article by

750-1101: The supplier for a century. All the balls supplied to MLB teams are manufactured in Costa Rica. Many major leaguers have endorsed Rawlings equipment over the years. There are five main series for the gloves: the Gold Glove Series, the Heritage Pro Series, the Heart of the Hide Series, the Pro Preferred Series, and the Gold Glove Collection Series. As of 2013 , Rawlings baseball gloves were the most often-chosen gloves of current MLB players. Former products manufactured by Rawlings included American football , basketball , soccer , and volleyball balls, as well as golf clubs . As of August 19, 2010, Rawlings signed

780-474: The title Rawlings . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rawlings&oldid=1049867515 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Rawlings (company) The Rawlings company

810-540: Was Life and Battles of James J. Corbett , Volume 1, Number 1 in 1892. The book includes stories of Corbett's past opponents. The first book was published under: Spalding's Athletic Library, American Sports Publishing Company, New York. The editor of the first book was Richard K. Fox, and Corbett was referred to as the California Wonder. In the baseball series, Ty Cobb wrote "Strategy in the Outfield." In

840-607: Was acquired by Seidler Equity Partners (SEP) and MLB Properties from Newell Brands in June 2018 for $ 395 million. Rawlings was founded in Saint Louis in 1887, during the middle of the Long Depression , by George and Alfred Rawlings. The brothers set up a sporting goods store with its own catalog. They sold "Fishing Tackle, Guns, Baseball, Football, Golf, Polo, Tennis, Athletic and General Sporting Goods". The company

870-583: Was adopted by the National League and used by the league since 1880, as well as by the American Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs for the seasons of 1892–1896. It was manufactured by A. G. Spalding & Bros., Chicago , New York & Philadelphia and sold for $ 1.50 in 1896. In 1892, Spalding acquired rival sporting goods companies Wright & Ditson and A. J. Reach . In 1893, A.G. Spalding & Brothers purchased

900-695: Was renamed Newell Brands. It was announced on June 5, 2018, that Rawlings was sold from Newell Brands to the Los Angeles -based private equity firm , Seidler Equity Partners (SEP), run by San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler , with MLB a co-investor in the $ 395 million deal. Rawlings employs 150 people in the St. Louis area, and 1,200 globally. The deal was completed on July 2, 2018. Rawlings previously made some custom baseball gloves at its plant in Washington, Missouri , and still makes many baseball gloves in

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