There was no way Joel Youngblood was leaving his glove behind. Even if Youngblood, showered and wearing a suit after being traded to Montreal, already had started the baseball odyssey that would lead him to a quirky place in the game’s lore.

So he told the cabbie taking him to O’Hare Airport in Chicago to turn around. Back to Wrigley Field to grab the only glove Youngblood ever used in his 14-year MLB career, a Rawlings XPG Fastback. ‘I couldn’t break in another glove the way this one felt,’ Youngblood says now.