Clubhouse Gas
Casey: A few months ago we were at Jonquil Sporting Goods with our friend Craig Brooks and we did a show on how to break in a glove. Well when we launched our YouTube channel a couple of weeks ago we put 60 shows up and that show about how to break in the glove quickly shot into the top 5. It got several great comments like this one from Waffley22: Hey I’m 13 year old and I’m looking for a new glove I can use at least half the way through high school. I’m in middle school right now playing middle infield and I need a pretty good price range because I want a good quality glove, any suggestions.
Well today we’re going to try to answer some of those questions right here Craig Brooks is back. We want to talk about all aspects of gloves on Clubhouse Gas.
Craig thank you so much for joining us again buddy.
Craig: Thanks.
Casey: We’ve got a lot to get to so I’m just going to jump right into it. Now we’ve done a show a little while back about Tee ball, alright not a lot of demand for Tee ball but it was a very popular show. The instructor we had come on said something kind surprising to me. Don’t buy what would be considered a Tee Ball glove by a bigger glove so we’re a bigger target and a lot of success in catching the ball.
I want to ask you first and foremost what should I buy for my tee baller?
Craig: I would have to disagree with that particular gentleman, you know I think something, there’s a lot of gloves out there that are made for the smaller hands. If I take my old softball glove or my old baseball glove and give it to my 6 year old one that’s heavy to my hand it’s formed on my hand on the inside it’s stretched out. As soon as he puts his fingers in there I mean he can’t even come close to squeezing it the right way.
There’s lots of gloves out there made with a much smaller hand holds, small little features like Velcro tightening, just and then made out of lighter weight and softer materials. This glove for instance is made out of pig skin. There’s no lacing across the top here, that’s one of the more difficult areas to break into a glove. This area here is where you would want the glove to hinge. This is a soft material obviously this is cut out.
This would be an ideal glove for say a 5, 6, 7, 8 year old kid but something that they can control again it’s just not too heavy and if they can squeeze.
Casey: So for you it’s more important for the kid to be able to squeeze the glove completely than to have a bigger target where the ball could actually just fall into it?
Craig: Definitely you know there’s some folks you know that say get him a big glove so you know so you can get no confidence possibly when he kind of blind eyes, you know that fly ball and that just happens landing in there. I can understand that you know yeah he’s going to build some confidence but I want to teach fundamentals and teach that kid to get his rear end down and to feel the ball properly. With a small glove he can learn those fundamentals, with his daddy’s softball glove. He’s going to catch everything like this and all just going to happen to go in his glove. He’s going to think he’s an All Star when he’s not getting any better.
Casey: Just real quick it’s kind of like the toy inside of the cereal box, any effect on the gloves quality based on baseball player on the inside?
Craig: No, I wish—
Casey: I don’t know if Bobby is kicked into place.
Craig: I wish they did not do this. Normally we see a signature or something in the glove that usually means it’s a low end glove.
Casey: I got to be honest with you Dale Murphy Glove my whole life.
Craig: Yeah it was not very expensive.
Casey: No but it lasted for along time. I mean I wouldn’t throw it away for nothing.
Craig: No I understand.
Casey: What about an 9 or 10 year old kid who’s getting ready to maybe move up to the big field or at least wants to have the capability to go and play on the big field, what kind of glove do we look for, for them?
Craig: I still think that there’s still a lot of kids, there’s a lot of guys out there that just want buy a really, really nice glove. They want to buy the most expensive glove on the market and give it their kid at 7, 8, 9, years old. I don’t like to do that, that’s fine if it’s broken in properly for his hand but I still think there’s some transition on working your way up.
This glove Mizuno is a nice glove for anybody from say 7 up through I mean possibly even as old as 13.
Casey: Right.
Craig: But again some small features, another little way of notching out the glove here.
Casey: So you can close it easy.
Craig: So it makes it easier to close, it also teaches you the proper alignment of the glove which is this way. A lot of people want to try to break a glove don’t to pinky which is incorrect. You want to close it most natural of your hand which is here. They also don’t have lacing in the top here, another feature for being able to close it easier and they have a really deep pocket.
So when it does it just happen to land in that glove hopefully, it sticks.
Casey: What is this out here?
Craig: This is just a feature that Mizuno offers. You can actually put your thumb as it goes in the glove into this are and this helps it basically it makes the glove feel like your thumb is longer and it’s going to help you squeeze that glove a little bit. Because the problem with most kids as far as the glove goes their hand barely goes in the glove so where you or I would want my pocket to be and we squeeze around the baseball as we catch it. With that small hand is barely in the glove so he’s squeezes directly on the baseball, there’s no area for a pocket.
So that’s just again making their finger just feel a little longer and making it a little bit easier to clutch.
Casey: Alright so we’ve got the transitional glove and then we get to being 12 year old and we start having dreams of playing on ESPN. I don’t want a transitional glove, I’m a big stud. What are we looking for, for that kid as far as a 12 year old goes?
Craig: Well I mean from practice points I would say you would be very, very happy with a glove anywhere from just $100 up to possibly a professional style glove you know 1 sample again, another Mizuno glove of this MVP series from them I don’t mean to just be showing on Mizuno gloves or anything but this glove is they basically take their pro model patterns and they make it in a softer more pliable leather easier to break in.
I think this is probably a very good 11, 12 maybe 13, possibly even 14 transitional glove into that high school or that upper echelon baseball.
Casey: Now you mentioned price wise just shy over $100 and then moving on up to the pro range one the comments we got on YouTube from a guy who said anything over $100 or anything over $150 getting ripped off and another comment saying anything under $100 is a garbage glove, where do you expert come down on that argument?
Craig: Well you know the comment about anything you know $150 or more is a rip off I think I just completely disagree with that. I think there’s tons of gloves out there that you know most of the gloves at your professional players are using today college players are using today would retail in the range of the high 100 like 189 up to as high as 400.
Casey: And then below $100 the glove being garbage?
Craig: Well as far as that goes I would disagree with that as well, I think again you need to it’s all about the transition, you know if the child is you know, if it’s a young guy he doesn’t need to have the $200 glove again for the same reasons.
Casey: Same as we were talking about—
Craig: Same as we are talking about practice—
Casey: And so with the higher quality best. Thank you so much Craig it’s a great information. We’re going to continue this show next Friday right here on Clubhouse so make sure you tune in as Craig pulls out a bunch of different gloves and show us their uses. It’s going to be a great show next Friday on Clubhouse Gas.
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