The Legend of the Bear Claw

"The Legend of the Bear Claw"
 
I was about 13 years old when I purchased an A700 brown Wilson closed web infielders glove from a local used sportings good store.  The guy who sold it to me said it was a great glove, little did I know it was way more than that.  I was always a 1st baseman being left-handed and a tad overweight, but a dreamer to one day play more of a contributing position to help my team win, also because I was bored w/ the 1st base position.  So being a left-handed slugger my bat was always in the line-up.  In High School – Fresman year DH, sophmore year DH, varsity…yep you guessed it DH.  So as time went and my baseball career ended I moved on to the wonderful world of slow pitch softball.  I played 1st base (at least it wasn't EH'ing).  After a couple of years of that, one day I ended up at the Gumby tournament down in Springfield, IL (it's way south of I-80 for you northern guys who are unfamiliar).  I was down there w/ the best team Illinois has ever seen, that never won anything significant – COMMISSION.  On this particular day we were short a few players and had a couple injuries, so as I was throwing grounders to Jay Kvas and the boys and I heard a skirmish between Gonzo and an older player we had named Trammell, they were both hurt and didn't want to play 2nd base, TCP was an option but we could smell the fear of infield play seeping threw his skin.  As I was tired of the arguing I went to my bat-bag to get my brass knuckles to lay out both of them and I saw my old A700.  It had this glow around it like an angels halo, I thought to myself this is my chance so I grabbed it and said to the fellas "i'll play 2nd."  So as the boys had no choice we took the field. I was a little nervous as a left handed overweight 2nd baseman stuck out like a sore thumb, (Right Helmer?).  The players from the Gumby tried to drill me, grounder after grounder I snagged all of them, and then it came, one of the worm burners that infielders have nightmares about.  It skimmed the ground and I knew it was gonna jump up but didn't know when.  I had my glove down and it jumped up headed right for my face.  I shut my eyes and in the blink of an eye I heard the ball hitting my glove.  I don't remember moving my glove hand to catch it but I opened my eyes and saw the back of my glove in front of my face w/ the .47core 525 Evil ball in it, I proceeded to throw the runner out and head for the dug-out as it was the 3rd out.  As I was preparing to hit Illinois' best outfielder i've ever seen play Brian Zirkle said to me "You know that glove is like a bears claw snatching up everything."

As the years went by I displayed my talents at small town tournaments such as Beaverville, Ashkum, Chebanse, Kankakee, you name it I played in it.  Even crossing the border into Indiana when requested by towns people who had heard of such legendary play, but wanted to see the talents for there own eyes. Kinda like bigfoot, people want to believe but needed to see it.  Then one night I was robbing homers in Peotone showing of that the Bearclaw could catch fly-balls as well and the unthinkable happened I left the Bearclaw on a park bench at the fields after celebrating with the town people of Peotone who'd never seen such talents except for the pitching skills of one Billy Sluis.  Not thinking anything of it I went and bought a new glove thinking it didn't matter I was a great infielder, that wasn't the case.  I made error after error in tournament after tournament, and eventually was phased out of the lineup as I couldn't even concentrate on hitting.  Every time I go back to Peotone I still look around the field and in the lost and found for the glove, all there are is the memories.  The memories of that glove that gave birth to S.T.L. (Small Town Legend).  No one seems to know what happened to the glove, one guy told me it sold for $7,000 on ebay, another myth is that a woman actually took it as she wanted a piece of the legend that is.  Let me leave you with this one, an old man once told me he saw the glove float away into the sky and turn into a star, as the gloved once turned me into a star.  Some people know that it is real, many of you will read this and not believe but just ask around and you will find someone that has witnessed such talents as comparable to "the King and his Court" Its No Myth but a Legend my Friend…

Nick "S.T.L" Wilkins