Gloves are worn in other club sports such as golf and cricket, as well as soccer (by the goalkeeper), football, and of course baseball, but did you ever wonder why players wear batting gloves in baseball?
Baseball batting gloves gives players better grip and traction on the bat. It reduce the impact and vibration of the ball; this improves their control and accuracy in the swing. It also reduces the sweat, oil and dirt that gets onto the bat from the player’s hands, especially if it’s a wooden bat.
It’s time to haul out the baseball bat and head to the plate to explore why players wear baseball batting gloves and why not all batters choose to use them- some of those answers may surprise you!
Why Baseball Players Wear Batting Gloves
Players Wear Baseball Batting Gloves To Improve Their Grip On The Bat
Swinging a baseball bat at high speed to send one out of the park requires a good grip on the bat, as, without it, the bat can slip out of your hands at contact leading to an erratic strike on the ball. Baseball gloves give the batter much better traction between the rubber tread on the glove and the wood or metal grip area of the bat.
This is particularly effective when the batter’s hands are sweaty, whether nervous or just coming in from fielding. Being confident in your swing means having a solid grip on the bat and knowing it isn’t slipping when you swing.
Under a full-power swing, a great deal of force is exerted through the bat, and it’s critical to have a solid point of contact between the hands and the bat to ensure that energy is directed properly, and batting gloves help to achieve that.
Another consideration here is that the right fit of the batting gloves also makes a difference in their effectiveness. Wearing baseball batting gloves that are too big or too small for you will also create problems, so you need to use gloves that fit snugly on the hand.
If the gloves are too tight, they affect the hand’s mobility, and if they are too loose, they will slip and slide on the bat when you swing.
Players Wear Baseball Batting Gloves To Reduce Vibration & Impact
Batting gloves can act as shock absorbers, and if you have ever had the experience of feeling that impact through your hands when you hit the ball, you know exactly how that feels! Compare that to when wearing gloves, and the most batter would prefer the latter.
The shock of the ball impacting the bat will travel through it and into your hands and arms, so having a layer of protection to absorb some of that impact vibration makes hitting the ball at full power much less uncomfortable.
Players Wear Baseball Batting Gloves To Protect Their Hands
While the batting gloves in baseball are pretty thin and don’t come with any real padding, the protection they offer is against blisters and friction between the skin and the bat’s surface when gripped.
The bat can often slide in the batter’s hands when swinging, and if they are practicing hitting 50 balls or more, after a while, friction can cause blisters and chafe on the hands, which makes swinging the bat painful or even impossible.
This is not an option for pro batters who make a living from batting, so they will choose a suitable glove to help their hands stay in the game longer. Of course, batting technique and grip pressure also play a role in blisters, but having a barrier between wood/aluminum and your skin is a good way to prevent injury to your hands when batting.
The other reason batters wear gloves is to protect their hands when sliding to a base. You will see it mostly on the first base run, and then when they reach the base, the gloves come off. From there, the batter will often not put them on again but enclose them in their fist to stop their fingers from getting jammed as they slide for the next base.
Can Fielders Wear Batting Gloves
There is no rule in any baseball league that states fielders may not wear gloves, only pitchers may not, and this is because if the pitcher wears a glove, it will make it more challenging for the batter to see the ball coming out of the hand.
Fielders, however, may opt to wear gloves as it may assist them with traction on the ball when throwing and fielding ground balls. While not every fielder wears a glove, many pro and amateur players use gloves when fielding.
Have Baseball Batting Gloves Always Been Used
The use of batting gloves in baseball is a relatively new development going back only about 60 years or so. While cricket had batting gloves as far back as 1890, and there have been some vague and distorted references to baseball batting gloves dating back to the 1800s, the modern baseball batting glove only came into the game in 1968.
Ken Harrelson is credited with the invention of baseball batting gloves as he was the first professional player to wear them in a regular season game. This means great batters like Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron batted without a glove!
So that begs the question of whether batting gloves in baseball are necessary or simply another accessory that the game could be played without.
Why Do Some Batters Play Without Batting Gloves
For many batters, using batting gloves is a personal choice, and some opt not to use them. This may be because, growing up; they learned to bat without gloves or prefer to feel the bat in their hands rather than through the glove, giving them a better feel of the bat in their hands through the swing.
But, these players are very much the minority as only 11 out of the almost 700 that play in the Major League don’t wear batting gloves.
Do You Need Baseball Batting Gloves
In most cases, baseball batting gloves will help protect your hands from blisters and vibration and give you a better grip on the bat, but this is a personal choice. The easiest way to find out is to head to the plate, hit ten balls with and without batting gloves, and see what feels best for you.
Baseball batting gloves vary in cost from around $20 to $70 depending on which ones you buy. As an amateur , you don’t need to spend a lot to find a good set, and gloves from brands like Marucci, Franklin, Warstic, Mizuno, Victus and EvoShield will run in the $40-$60 range.
Conclusion
Although baseball batting gloves have only been a relatively recent addition to modern baseball, their prevalence in both major and minor leagues suggests that they make a difference in batting performance.
But, who knows, perhaps somewhere out there, a kid is swinging away bare-handed, and someday he could emerge as the next great batter in the same vein as the legends of the past without wearing baseball batting gloves!