462 W Port Plaza Drive
St. Louis, MO 63146
314-819-2900
Free admission. Free parking in West Port Plaza parking lots.
https://www.rawlings.com/rawlings-experience-st-louis.html
Established
2024Rawlings Sporting Goods was founded here is St. Louis in 1887 and after several different ownerships it has settled into specializing in baseball and softball equipment and clothing. They are the official provider for major league baseball. In April they opened the Rawlings Experience STL which turned out to be really a store with a few museum like displays and a couple of interactive opportunities.
The Rawlings Experience STL is located Maryland Heights at West Port Plaza at the company's headquarters. It covers two floors. You can't miss it because of the huge yellow baseball out front!
When you enter your eyes gravitate to another large baseball.
On the back of it one can see all of the layers that surround the cork center of the major league baseball.
A sign explains the "pill" or cork center. Other signs display more information about the baseballs.
Going down a few steps you enter the lower level dedicated mostly to their gloves.
In 1957, the company introduced the Gold Glove award, which became the major award for baseball. Behind this huge glove is a room dedicated to the Golden Glove winners.
There are several locker displays dedicated to special winners. Cardinal Ozzie Smith was awarded the Gold Glove for thirteen consecutive seasons.
This picture shows him posing with ten of his gloves.
One wall recognizes all winners. In 2021 the St. Louis Cardinals had five of the nine National League winners.
There are several special gloves displayed in this room including this Swarovski Crystal Glove which has 15,000 authentic Swarovski crystals which were attached by hand. The glove is actually on sale for $25,000. The sign states that it is ideal for infielders!
This is one of three Grateful Dead gloves on display!
Somehow I don't see a Major League player using this watermelon glove.
Large signs on the wall in the entrance demonstrate the evolution of their gloves.
One room is full of gloves for sale! Just a few of them...
There is a large variety.
There are even one-time special gloves such as this Easter glove.
And if you don't like what they have on display for purchase you can go into this room and make your own personalized glove.
There are many options from which to chose.
On the second floor one learns about Easton bats and their history.
They were early pioneers in aluminum bats. In 2020 the company was purchased by Rawlings Sporting Goods.
This display shows you the inside of a hollow aluminum bat.
And of course there are many different bats on sale!
There was a fairly long line for the batting cage!
There were even two t-ball batting cages.
The second floor also had many leather and clothing items for sale.
The Rawlings Experience displays all kinds of information including the major league baseball schedule for that day.
And if you get tired from shopping or hitting balls in the cages there are several gloves one can sit in and rest.
West Port Plaza offers a number of eating establishments including several right out the Rawlings door and to the right.
We ate at Jovick Brothers Deli.
They offered the usual deli sides - pasta salad and cucumber and onion.
And of course a Pastrami Reuben
and a French dip sandwich.
Comments: We visited this new place because most of us enjoy baseball and because I was under the impression that it was a museum of sorts. As stated earlier it was really more of a store but the informational displays were fun and interesting. Young and old baseball enthusiasts would love going there. Rawlings did a good job creating their "Experience."
It was well laid out with places to sit if you tired. A walk through to see it all and read the displays takes about 30-45 minutes.
Although I did not do much pricing, it seemed that the leather goods and baseball items were on the high side and at least some of the clothing was very reasonably priced.
West Port Plaza offers several great places to eat. We chose the deli because none of us had ever eaten there before and as we had hoped, it was quiet and comfortable for eating. The staff was friendly. The menu offered a number of sandwich and pizza offerings and a soup of the day. The food was OK, but on the whole not great.
