Is the baseball players of today a more finished article than the famous old star players of yesterday? Anson, Ferguson, Stovey, Rowe, White, Brouthers, Thompson, and Sunday were once the idols of the fans, yet the player on the big teams of today can show even cleaner fielding averages. Why? you ask. Just compare the 1908 scores with those of even ten years ago. Games are won on closer margins, fewer hits and less errors. Better fielding tells the story.

It isn't that the players themselves are so much better than the old timers. The real reason for the better baseball of today can be traced to better fielding mitts and gloves.

The men on the sacks and the men in the outer garden used to wear almost any old kind of glove, with very little if any padding. The mitts or gloves were not moulded, consequently many a hot liner that today would be easily nabbed by a fielder, was in the old days muffed and the bases safely reached by the batter.

Interest in the matter led us to look further into the question of mitts and gloves as used by the big teams of the present. Almost without exception we find the World's Champions, the National and American League teams, the minor leagues, semi-professional, college and amateur nines all sing mitts and gloves made by the A. J. Reach Company of Philadelphia. The name tells much, for Mr. Reach himself was one of the famous second basemen of his day, and so knows what is required in the shape of mitts and gloves.

It takes a players to fill a player's wants and Mr. Reach ha certainly solved the mitt and glove problem for the baseball played.

The demand for such a variety of mitts and gloves, in all styles and shapes, in different materials and at different prices to meet varied requirements has resulted in making the Reach lines the standard of the world.

Care in making is a watchword in the Reach factory. Every mitt and glove must be just right, the hollow moulded to hold the ball fast, for every Reach Mitt and Glove is fully guaranteed to give satisfaction. It's safe to say that Reach goods can be found at almost any sporting goods outfitter's.