Summer Premier Auction 2014

Arnold “Jigger” Statz broke into baseball with John McGraw's New York Giants in 1919. He played some major league ball, enough to attain legendary status with his glove, but Statz is best remembered for his 18-year career with the old Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. "Everybody loved that man, in every city in the league," said Jimmie Reese, Statz's Angel teammate and former coach for the California Angels. "You talk about fan appeal." Why did they love Jigger? For starters, he was a defensive dynamo, a sprinter and a daring acrobat in center field. Jigger's fly-snagging secret was that he cut the entire palm out of his fielder's glove. And gloves had little webbing then, so you had to catch the ball smack in the middle of the pocket. Or, in Jigger's case, smack in the palm of his hand. So Statz caught all those 8,625 fly balls barehanded. "You could feel the ball better," Jigger explains. “Didn't it hurt your hand?” he was asked. "You get used to it." This amazing PCL relic is Jigger Statz’s Spalding professional model glove that was displayed at the Helms Hall and recorded in their records as having been used by him around 1926. The glove shows great usage wear and has the signature trait of Statz having the palm cut out. In spite of heavy general wear throughout the glove shows no significant structural faults. Jigger Statz is arguably the PCL’s most legendary figure, making this glove an absolute gem for any collector of the finest artifacts from the west coast circuit.

Includes a Letter of Provenance from the Helms Athletic Foundation/LA84 Collection.