Elysian Fields - Hoboken,
New Jersey, summer of 1846

Baseball history was made on a small field along the Hudson River in the shadows of the New York City Skyline. "Base Ball" or "Town Ball" is forever linked to 1839 Cooperstown, New York but 1846 Hoboken, New Jersey is where Alexander Joy Cartwright and The New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club developed and published the first rules of the game. Maybe this is why Hoboken is proud to say it is baseball's birthplace.

Baseball Gloves developed much in the way the game developed. Slowly. Gloves first appeared on the diamond in the 1870's. Players that were tired of bruising or breaking fingers began wearing gloves to protect their hands. Initially, players wearing these "garments" were mocked or considered "unmanly." Today enthusiasts of baseball associate "tan gloves" as "traditional" but players may have selected the flesh color to camouflage their embarrassment of wearing a glove. Fortunately for baseball players by the time the turn of the century came around everyone was wearing a glove.

Evolution of the Glove

In 1880 the baseball glove looked like a cut-off work glove. Fingertips were still exposed in many early gloves. Padding was minimal. Catchers and first baseman usually wore a glove on each hand. Fielders usually wore one glove on his catching hand.

By the early 1900's the glove developed full fingers and looked like an open hand and felt like an oven mitt. Heels or padding on the base of the glove appeared to give a pocket so the ball would not fall out.

By the 1920's fielders' hands were still taking a punishment so a web or lace was added between the thumb and pointer finger. Catcher's mitts & First base mitts started looking more like a round pillow to cushion the blow of a hard throw.

In the 1940's gloves developed lacing between the fingers. The "three-finger" glove became a big hit. That same decade the first baseman's "trapper" appeared. What made the 'trapper" so different was that its shape was more advanced and easy to catch a ball than its cousin the fielder's glove.

By the 1950's actual deep "pockets" were being developed into the gloves with lacing and sewing that sculptured the padding. "Heels" were losing padding.

It wasn't until 1957 when the fielder's glove added a hinge that spawned additional modification such as closed backs and checkerboard webs in the 1960's. Not much changed in the next three decades.

Enter Today's Sole Glove Innovator:

In 2001 Akadema, a relatively new sporting goods upstart came up with the concept of a small-fingered glove it called the Reptilian (due to the shape of its webbed fingers). The Reptilian increased the pocket size and featured small digits that looked more like fingernails to scoop the ball. Like other revolutionary gloves in the past some "traditionalist" thought the glove was "odd." The Reptilian however was a commercial and professional evolutionary success. The small company followed by creating evolutionary designs for outfielders, (The Claw, 2002) and catchers, (The Praying Mantis 2003). In 2004 The Sporting Goods Dealer Magazine recognized Akadema for "10 Companies to Watch" and "25 Most Innovative Leaders"

Evolution & Acceptance (Don't go hand in hand)

But why does baseball glove evolution seem to take years or sometimes decades? And why do innovative concepts take so long to be accepted by baseball players?

Glove expert Noah Lieberman, author of Glove Affairs- The Romance, History and Tradition of the
Baseball Glove explains,

Noah Lieberman comments in a recent interview," "Akadema is the most creative of the 15 baseball glove makers in the market today. There are forces of tradition that these guys are bucking."

And so Akadema, the manufacturer who bucks tradition and continues to evolve the glove also tips their hats to the old designs when the .400 hitter was king.