Catcher's Mitts Cushioning

They’re the guys on the baseball diamond that get the brunt of the bangup: catcher’s get run over, they destroy their knees by crouching all day long. And now, there’s evidence that they suffer significant hand trauma, perhaps, because their gloves aren’t protecting them enough. It’s interesting in that modern catcher’s mitts have less padding than gloves used prior to the 1960’s. The glove is more flexible, allows a better handle on the ball, an easier release if the runner is going. But the downside is that perhaps, it’s putting the catchers at risk for short term and long term hand injury.

Baseball catchers bear the brunt of injuries on the baseball field: they get run over, they destroy their knees by crouching all day long. Now, there’s evidence that they suffer significant hand trauma, perhaps, because their gloves aren’t protecting them enough. It’s interesting that modern catcher’s mitts have less padding than gloves used prior to the 1960’s.

The glove is more flexible, allows a better handle on the ball, an easier release if the runner is going. But the downside is that perhaps, it’s putting the catchers at risk for short term and long term hand injury. It sounds painful to be on the receiving end of a 95 mile per hour fastball. And maybe, the catcher’s mitt is not good enough. "Even when it’s just slightly cold this finger you can just touch it and feel how cold this finger is compared to the rest of my hand."

Injuries of this type on the baseball field are an occupational hazard for the guys behind the plate like Brandon Yarbregh of the New Jersey cardinals. Now medical experts are saying catcher’s mitts aren’t doing the job at protecting the hand. "t will actually get a little numb from I guess there might be a little damage in your finger," says Brandon. Actually, the researchers showed that indeed, there are vascular changes in the blood vessels.

Dr. Michele Carlson, a hand surgeon at the hospital for special surgery, says, "They tend to catch a little bit more with pressure in the palm area and it’s that repetitive constant pressure in the palm area that can cause chronic changes in the nerves and the vessels in the hand." Overall, nearly half 44 percent of catchers reported hand weakness compared to just 7 percent of pitchers and 17 percent of fielders and most of the weakness was on the gloved hand.

The study also found that catchers experience more hand pain, numbness, and tingling--signs of probably nerve damage. And the index finger on their gloved hands were markedly bigger. "As much catching as we do it stays it stays pretty good," says Craig Newton, also a catcher for the cardinals. "Often the trainers get involved with helping them personalizing their mitt basically and they add paddings to certain areas sometimes we even add a splint within the mitt to protect their thumb or other parts of their hand," states dr. Carlson.

Still, if you include game and warmups, catchers take more than 300 impacts to the gloved hand each day--prompting the study authors to call for a better catcher’s mitt design. "I think they probably should have a little more padding, like put something in the glove to try and support the thumb area," Brandon considers. Something…anything….so that that pop won’t sting so much…I’m Dr. Mike Rosen.

Dr. Carlson, says she has yet to see long term damage done by catching, but the catchers, in New York and other states, might not be coming in to complain about the effects of vascular damage. The authors are calling for more studies that will follow catchers for several years to see what happens, and whether any chronic neurologic or vascular problems arise.