Story behind upcoming ‘Reds Threads’ exhibit

From Knothole baseball to Mariemont High School sports to the United States Army to finding a way to turn a passion into a vocation, uniforms always have been a large part of Dave Grob’s life.

While retired from the Army, Grob still has found a way to indulge his love of sports and uniforms. He has become what the Smithsonian Institution describes as “the nation’s foremost authenticator of vintage Major League Baseball uniforms.”

Grob’s keen interest in uniforms — including his favorite, Ted Kluszewski’s complete 1954 home uniform — will be on display at the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum starting March 23 with the opening of “Reds Threads,” an exhibit focusing on uniforms from the past worn by Reds and players from other teams.

“It’s going to be a pretty elaborate setup,” said Grob, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel who works for the Army as a civilian and lives in Silver Springs, Mary., with his wife, Michelle, a 1983 Northwest High School graduate who ran cross country for the Knights

“This is the first time a featured exhibit will be continued up on the third floor. The whole downstairs will be on the Reds and some other non-Reds uniforms. Upstairs, when you come out of the elevators, it will be like the colors of Crosley Field. We’ll feature the ’54 ‘Klu’ uniform, then National League road uniforms from the era along with ushers’ uniforms and a few other things. We’ll also have National League road uniforms from the 1970s.

“It’ll be like the Wizard of Oz of uniforms. It’s going to be a visual feast of uniforms. We’ll transition to All-Star Game jerseys, patches, jackets. There will be other teams represented. It’ll be the largest collection of uniforms outside of Cooperstown (N.Y., home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum).”

Grob’s fascination for team apparel dates back to 1970, the year the “Big Red Machine” moved into Riverfront Stadium and won the National League pennant.

“Absolutely, whether it was sports or the military or transitioning into baseball uniforms,” said the 1982 Mariemont graduate, co-author of “Game Worn: Baseball Treasures from the Game’s Greatest Heroes and Moments.”

“My first year in (youth) baseball was 1970. That’s the first baseball season I remember. I played for Thomas Funeral Home. Nineteen seventy in Cincinnati was the perfect convergence for kids and baseball.

“The thing I remember most about the Thomas Funeral Home uniform is we got uniforms, but we didn’t get shirts right away. They told us to go home and write a number on a T-shirt. We showed up for our first game on Saturday morning, and every kid had written either a ‘5’ or a ‘14’ on their shirts.”

Johnny Bench wore No. 5 for the Reds. Pete Rose wore No. 14.

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati in 1987, Grob transitioned to the Army, where he worked primarily in intelligence for the next 20 years, rising to lieutenant colonel. He served in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm as well as around the world.

He was mentioned in a 1994 Enquirer story about fans at spring training after taking his son, Jacob, then 7 years old and now an Army officer, to the Reds’ Plant City, Fla., camp.

“As I kind of got away from Cincinnati, I got interested in uniforms as a way to stay connected,” said Grob, whose daughter, Mary, is an attorney in Charlotte, N.C.

“Researching and collecting Reds’ uniforms was a way to stay connected with the city I grew up in.”

Grob learned that his military intelligence background was effective in what still was a fledgling industry.

“I was trying to do research, but there was very little information out there,” he said. “I noticed while talking to people in the industry that they really weren’t capturing their own work. You would see the same information once, twice, three times, but it would be describing something different. That kind of got me to thinking that this is a really neat thing.

“Intelligence is basically answering questions, and I found that the same thing could apply to researching uniforms. In the beginning, it boiled down to the premise that, ‘It’s good because I say so.’ There were no analytics. There were no established protocols and procedures.

“I also started investing heavily in building a research library. I don’t go for the big names. I go for the common players. They’re far more affordable and less likely to be a contrived product.

“Over the last couple of decades, it’s turned into a viable business and a way to combine passion and intellect.”

His business, which includes serving as a consultant with a Milwaukee-based sports memorabilia auction firm called Memorabilia Evaluation and Research Services (MEARS) and as Special Assistant for Artifacts and Exhibits for the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum, has grown to include a number of uniforms and other pieces of memorabilia large enough for Grob to describe Michelle as “probably the most tolerant woman in the world.”

Besides the Kluszewski uniform, the first for a Reds player manufactured without jersey sleeves to accommodate his massive upper arms, Grob owns several Reds uniforms from different eras and a minor league Denver Bears 1952 uniform that was designed so that the colors matched the strike zone.

The owner of the Bears team? Bob Howsam, the Reds president and general manager in the “Big Red Machine” era.

Grob also owns several uniforms teams wore for one season or less, including some they wore for one game.

Missing from his collection? That homemade Thomas Funeral Home jersey.

“If there was a one-gamer I could have,” he said, “that would be the one.”