Little League Baseball founder, Carl Stotz began his love of baseball as a kid playing with baseballs covered in friction tape, using makeshift and hand-me-down equipment. This love and improvising on the fly gave rise to world’s greatest and most popular youth sports organization. In far-off Nigeria, this improvisational tradition continues.

A handmade right-hander’s baseball glove, fashioned by 9-year-old Little Leaguer Philip Adeeri Fagbenro of the Ekiti Kete Little League in Ado Ekiti, Nigeria, is the latest example of this tradition.

This example of dedication and pluck is truly an example of “the glove of the game.” It is now one of the most interesting and telling relics that has ever been donated to the World of Little League Peter J. McGovern Museum.

“I saw a photo of Philip and his glove posted by a Facebook friend who is a coach in the league in Nigeria,” said Lance Van Auken, Little League Vice President and Executive Director of the World of Little League Museum. “So I asked the coach (Aina Sunday Oluwafemi) if Philip would allow it to be put on display in our Museum.”

The glove arrived on June 11 from Nigeria at the cost of more than 17,000 Nigerian Naira, or about $47. It will soon be the centerpiece of an exhibit in the Connections Gallery of the World of Little League Museum.

“It’s made from cardboard, paper, glue, black thread, and copper wire,” Van Auken said. “You can tell that Philip worked hard to make it authentic-looking, including the stitching. It reminds me of some of the equipment created or repurposed by children in the U.S. before Little League came along.”

Most baseball gloves usually bear the signature of, or are endorsed by, a Major League player, (my own glove is a “Carl Yazstremski Triple Crown Model”), Philip attached a photo from the mid-1980s of Phillies outfielder/first baseman Von Hayes. The photo was clipped from a yearbook or magazine. Von Hayes played for Philadelphia from 1983 to 1991 in his glove.

According to Van Auken, very few players in the Ekiti Kete Little League have gloves and other equipment. Little League is sending a new Easton glove to Philip to replace the one he provided to the Museum. Other equipment and school supplies also are to be sent to the Little League, and the school Philip attends.

Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country with 190 million people, 60 percent of whom live in extreme poverty. Ado Ekiti is located in the Southwestern part of the country.

I think the story of Phillip and his handmade glove is a shining example of what the vision and philosophy about Little League are supposed to represent. And I think somewhere from his heavenly perch, Carl Stotz is smiling down on Phillip and his league mates in Nigeria.