Today, 135 years ago, the baseball glove was born. By no means it looked like the ones we use today, but it was the start of something that would develop through the following century.
On September 8, 1885 George H. Rawlings patented a close-fitting baseball glove that contained padding made of felt and rubber in the fingers, thumb, and palm. The owner of a a St. Louis sporting goods store invented the padded piece of equipment to prevent players from bruising their hands when catching a ball.
As you can see, it looks like a modern day batting glove but it was the start of something that made the live of ball players easier.
In the early 1900s, the baseball glove already started to look like what we use now.
In fact ball players already used gloves that resembles today’s cricket gloves before 1885. But the padding on the fingers, introduced by Rawlings was new and set the tone for the development of future baseball mits.
St.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 
Good question. But to be honest I cannot tell. Something to do some research for.
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One question I have is whether players wore the fingerless gloves on both hands. That would be the only purpose of the fingerless gloves. According to Bill James, Jerry Denny was the last fielder not to wear a glove on either hand. He last played in the majors in 1894. He continued to play professionally until 1902. I don’t know if he wore a glove in his later minor league years.
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