baseball glove : Long-lost baseball glove returns

A man found his brother’s boyhood baseball glove at a flea market — 42 years after it disappeared.

Patrick Reynolds’ name and pre-area code phone number were still legible on the left-hander’s mitt, which his brother, Jeff, plucked from a barrel of used sports equipment. Jeff Reynolds paid $5 for the glove last week and returned it to his brother.

“He thought maybe I’d had the glove all these years,” quipped Jeff Reynolds, 47, a telephone service technician.

Actually, Patrick Reynolds always thought his father had given the glove away to needy children. His father had been drafted by the old St. Louis Browns and, after serving in the military during World War II, played recreational ball and mentored young players until about age 65.

“He was always collecting old gloves and relacing them and giving them to kids who needed them,” said Reynolds, a 57-year-old senior county parks landscape architect from Lomita. “I figure he found mine at home and donated it to somebody to use.”

The swap meet, at Alpine Village, is close to where the brothers grew up. They figure the glove remained in the neighborhood the whole time.

Reynolds said he will display his old glove on a shelf.

“All my grandkids are right-handed, so they can't use it,” he said.

© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved