Baseball glove worn by Willie Mays during the 1954 World Series

A baseball glove or mitt is a large leather glove that baseball players on the defending team are allowed to wear to assist them in catching and fielding balls hit by a batter, or thrown by a teammate.

[edit] History

Bid McPhee playing second base without a glove

Early baseball was a game played without gloves. During the slow transition to gloves, a player who continued to play without one was called a barehanded catcher. This did not refer to the position of Catcher, but rather to the practice of catching with bare hands. The earliest glove was not webbed and not particularly well suited for catching, but was used more to bat a ball to the ground so that it could be picked up. No doubt this lack of functionality contributed to the early resistance to the glove.

An 1885 glove patent.

One of the first players believed to use a baseball glove was Doug Allison, a catcher for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, in 1870, due to an injured left hand.^[1] The first documented story of glove use concerns Charles Waitt, a St. Louis outfielder/first baseman who in 1875 donned a pair of flesh-colored gloves. While glove usage was not accepted by all players at first, being considered "sissy" by many, it slowly caught on as more and more players began using different forms of gloves. "We used no mattress on our hands, No cage upon our face; We stood right up and caught the ball, With courage and with grace."^[2] That was the typical reaction from the "old-time" players when the gloves were first introduced.

Many early baseball gloves were simple leather gloves with the fingertips cut off, supposedly to allow for the same control of a bare hand, but with extra padding. The adoption of the baseball glove by baseball star Albert Spalding when he began playing first base influenced more infielders to begin using gloves. By the mid 1890s, it was the norm for players to wear gloves in the field. It was an ironic fate for Spalding, as he once was skeptical to don the new glove in baseball, but then rose to the occasion and did it. He afterwards created the sporting goods empire known as Spalding.^[2]

A.C. Spalding & Bros. advertisement for infielder gloves, 1905

In 1920, Bill Doak, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, suggested that a web be placed between the first finger and the thumb in order to create a pocket. This design soon became the standard for baseball gloves.

Since their beginnings, baseball gloves have grown. While catching in baseball had always been two handed, eventually, gloves grew to a size that made it easier to catch the ball in the webbing of the glove, and use the off-hand to keep it from falling out. A glove is typically worn on the non-dominant hand, leaving the dominant hand for throwing the ball; for example, a right-handed player would wear a glove on the left hand. By convention, the type of glove that fits on the left hand is called a "right-handed" or "RH" glove.

The shape and size of the baseball glove is governed by official baseball rules; Section 1.00, Objectives of the Game, defines limits of catcher's, first baseman's and fielder's glove in parts 1.12, 1.13 and 1.14.

The baseball glove has come a long way in over the past century. Today, gloves are made more precisely and more efficiently for baseball players. Manufacturers have created different types of gloves to suit different types of people. Also, they have started personalizing gloves for certain players to increase exposure on national television. Rawlings sponsors more than 50% of the current MLB Players.^[3] It is because of this dedication to gloves that the MLB has rewarded Rawlings with the "annual Rawlings Gold Glove Award, which has been presented to players for fielding excellence since 1957."^[3]

Most players choose which glove manufacturer they will sign with when they are in the minor leagues, and stay with them for their entire career.^[3] Many players will switch glove companies for the right price. Most glove companies will pay in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for high-caliber players to endorse their gloves.^[3] Pitchers usually get the highest contracts for gloves because their glove is shown on television more frequently than other gloves.^[3] One of the biggest endorsers of gloves was Roger Clemens, who won seven Cy Young Awards (awarded to best pitcher in each baseball league). His Cy Young Awards were won with three different glove companies.^[3]

There are still many advancements coming in the age of the baseball glove. Even today, Easton (Sporting good equipment company) is "experimenting with combining leather and Kevlar (used in bullet-proof vests) in a new ultra-light weight glove line".^[2]

Even though there have been many advancements in the design and creation of the baseball glove, the greatest came in the invention of the catcher's mitt. It's very understandable that the catcher's mitt led the way for development because no other glove is used as much in a game as the catcher's mitt.^[2] A University of Wake Forest studied demonstrated, through 39 minor-league players, that even though today's catcher's mitts are state-of-the-art, they still do not offer enough protection from long term injury to the hand and wrist.^[2]

A custom made Rolin Baseball Glove.

[edit] Varieties

The shape and size of a glove is described by its "pattern". Modern gloves have become quite specialized, with position-specific patterns:

• Catcher's mitts are called "mitts" because they lack individual fingers, like mittens. They have extra padding and a hinged, claw-like shape that helps them to catch 90+-mile-per-hour fastballs, and provide a good target for pitchers. If required to catch a knuckleball, a catcher will typically use an even larger mitt. Sizes of catcher's mitts, unlike those of other gloves, are measured around the circumference, and they typically have 32- to 34-inch patterns.
• First basemen's mitts also lack individual fingers. They are generally very long and wide to help them "pick or scoop" badly thrown balls from infielders. These mitts usually have 12.5- to 12.75-inch patterns, measured from wrist to the tip. Note that, because first basemen are often left-handed, first basemen's mitts are readily available to fit on a right hand. Hank Greenberg, a famously clumsy fielder, is often credited as the first to wear this style of glove in the field.^[4]
• Infielders' gloves, unlike the first baseman's mitt, tend to be smaller. They have shallow pockets to allow fielders to remove the ball easily in order to make a quick throw to a base. Often the webbing will be open to allow dirt to move through the glove so that the infielder does not pull out a handful of dirt when trying to remove the ball from the glove. Infielder's gloves typically have 11- to 12-inch patterns, measured from the wrist to the tip.
• Pitchers' gloves usually have a closed, opaque, webbing to allow pitchers to conceal their grip on the ball (which, in part, determines the behavior of the pitch in flight) from the batter.
• Outfielder's gloves are usually quite long with deep pockets, to help with catching fly balls on the run or in a dive, and to keep outfielders from having to bend down as far to field a ground ball. These gloves typically have 12- to 12.75-inch patterns, measured from wrist to the tip. They are frequently worn-in differently than those of infielders, with a flatter squeeze rather than the infielder's rounded style.
• Switch-thrower's gloves are gloves with a second thumb pocket on the opposite side of the glove to allow it to be worn on either side of the hand, as used by switch-pitcher Pat Venditte.

[edit] Major glove manufacturers

• Louisville Slugger
• Akadema
• Nokona
• Rawlings
• Spalding
• Kelley Athletic
• Wilson
• Nike, Inc
• Easton
• Mizuno

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• "How Products Are Made: Baseball Glove." www.science.enotes.com
• "Baseball Glove Leather"
• "MLB Rules 1.0".