| A baseball glove or mitt is a large leather glove | | | | "old-time" players when the gloves were first |
| that baseball players on the defending team are | | | | introduced. |
| allowed to wear to assist them in catching and | | | | Many early baseball gloves were simple leather |
| fielding balls hit by a batter, or thrown by a | | | | gloves with the fingertips cut off, supposedly to |
| teammate. | | | | allow for the same control of a bare hand, but |
| Early baseball was a game played without gloves. | | | | with extra padding. The adoption of the baseball |
| During the slow transition to gloves, a player who | | | | glove by baseball star Albert Spalding when he |
| continued to play without one was called a | | | | began playing first base influenced more infielders |
| barehanded catcher. This did not refer to the | | | | to begin using gloves. By the mid 1890s, it was |
| position of Catcher, but rather to the practice of | | | | the norm for players to wear gloves in the field. |
| catching with bare hands. The earliest glove was | | | | It was an ironic fate for Spalding, as he once was |
| not webbed and not particularly well suited for | | | | skeptical to don the new glove in baseball, but |
| catching, but was used more to bat a ball to the | | | | then rose to the occasion and did it. He |
| ground so that it could be picked up. No doubt this | | | | afterwards created the sporting goods empire |
| lack of functionality contributed to the early | | | | known as Spalding Since their beginnings, baseball |
| resistance to the glove. | | | | gloves have grown. While catching in baseball had |
| One of the first players believed to use a baseball | | | | always been two handed, eventually, gloves grew |
| glove was Doug Allison, a catcher for the | | | | to a size that made it easier to catch the ball in |
| Cincinnati Red Stockings, in 1870, due to an | | | | the webbing of the glove, and use the off-hand |
| injured left hand.[1] The first documented story of | | | | to keep it from falling out. |
| glove use concerns Charles Waitt, a St. Louis | | | | A glove is typically worn on the non-dominant |
| outfielder/first baseman who in 1875 donned a | | | | hand, leaving the dominant hand for throwing the |
| pair of flesh-colored gloves. While glove usage | | | | ball; for example, a right-handed player would |
| was not accepted by all players at first, being | | | | wear a glove on the left hand. By convention, the |
| considered "sissy" by many, it slowly caught on as | | | | type of glove that fits on the left hand is called a |
| more and more players began using different | | | | "right-handed" or "RH" glove. The shape and size |
| forms of gloves. "We used no mattress on our | | | | of the baseball gloves is governed by official |
| hands, No cage upon our face; We stood right up | | | | baseball rules; Section 1.00, Objectives of the |
| and caught the ball, With courage and with | | | | Game, defines limits of catcher's, first baseman's |
| grace."[2] That was the typical reaction from the | | | | and fielder's glove in parts 1.12, 1.13 and 1.14. |