3 Tips For Selecting A Good Baseball Glove For Pitching

1.    It should be 11-3/4 to 12 inches in length.
2.    It should have a closed web (to hide the baseball, of course).
3.    It should be all one color (e.g., brown or black).

If you are a pitcher like me who prefers to leave your index finger outside the back of your glove, try to get a piece of leather to cover it. Some glove companies, such as Rawlings, offer this on some glove models. (If your glove doesn’t have this feature, you can take it to a leather shoe repair shop and have a piece of leather affixed to the back of your mitt.) This is important because often, without knowing it, pitchers tip off their off-speed pitches by making subtle movements with their index finger outside the glove. Some hitters may pick up on that finger movement. If your finger’s covered, however, those movements are shielded from view.

Rawlings, SSK, Mizuno, and Zett make good gloves. Wilson and Nakoma tend to be on the heavy side, while Akadema and Nike make gloves that tend to be lighter in weight. Another company comparable to Akadema is Yennaco, made by Jay Yennaco, a former Chicago Cubs player.

Most premium-leather baseball gloves have a “break in” time of about three or four weeks, and most professional baseball players have two or three gloves – a game-day glove, and one or two gloves that are used for practices.

Why Tuff Toe is the only pitching toe I recommend

Every pitcher should have a good pair of spikes and a pitching toe put on it. (It goes on the same foot as your throwing hand, by the way, if you're a rookie.) Pitching toes really save your spikes from wearing out, especially if you tend to drag your back foot, which I did.

The only company I recommend is Tuff Toe. They have a factory dip program: You send in your spike, they professionally apply the toe. It costs about $20, but if you've ever tried to apply Tuff Toe to your own shoe, you know it's a messy process and usually ends up just ruining your shoes.

You also can get a one-size-fits-all plastic pitching toe at most sporting goods stores that you simply string your shoelace through, but I really don't recommend this option. Get some good spikes, and protect them with a pitching toe.

Here's a link to get the Tuff Toe factory dip for your spikes. (Just remember to send them the correct shoe!)

How baseball coaches can run a better "pitcher's fielding practice"

I don't pike too many baseball products on my blog because many aren't worth their salt on the field. But this product is different. And now that I'm a coach and a fungo-hitting machine :-) I find it to be very useful.

I'm talking about the Fango. It's a a rubber gizmo that fits on the end of your fungo to pick up loose baseballs. When a ball is on the ground near you, just push the Fango down over it, and pick the ball right up. No bending over. Not bad.

I particularly enjoyed it while hitting PFPs to the 13-year-old pitchers I was working with this season. Too bad this thing wasn't around during my college days, when, as a starting pitcher, I had fungo duty like it was my second job. Still can't hit pop-ups on home plate to the catcher, though.

Click here to order the Fango.

Baseball glove repair: How to fix your baseball glove

Here's a new baseball glove repair instructional manual, Fix That Glove!!! that will show you how you can easily and quickly learn how to repair, restore, or relace your favorite baseball glove. Don't send your glove away for a week for $50.00 or more. Do it yourself!

Fix broken laces and condition your glove so that it looks and feels years younger. More importantly, your glove will last much longer if you know how to fix and condition it with the proper materials.

Click here to order the manual.

How to build a pitcher's mound

Thinking about building a pitcher's mound in your backyard this year? Or are you responsible for fixing the team mound this season? Here are some tips for doing it correctly.

A regulation pitcher's mound is 18 feet in diameter, the center of which is 59 feet from the back of home plate. The pitcher's plate (or pitching rubber as it is commonly called) is 18 inches behind dead center of the mound. The slope from the rubber shall begin 6 inches in front of the rubber and will slope toward home plate 1 inch for every foot.

The rubber rests 6 inches inside the front edge of a level area 5 feet wide and 34 inches deep and shall not be more than 10 inches higher than the playing field. This was not always true, however. During different periods in baseball history, the mound had been much taller.

The mound in Philadelphia's Shibe park, for example, was rumored to be 20 inches high at one time, and the mounds throughout baseball in the late 60s were as high as 16 inches. It wasn't until 1969 that it was lowered to today's standard.

The original rules stipulated that the pitching rubber be 45 feet from the plate. It has been moved back twice, first to 50 feet, then to it's present day measure in 1893, presumably to give batters a better chance to hit and/or get out of the way of errant pitches. Daniel Adams, the first chairman of the Committee on Rules and Regulations, was the man who claimed to have set the original 45 foot distance. It has been said that the precise distance it stands today was the result of a measuring error (it was supposed to be 60 feet) and that they simply decided to leave it.

Additional history of the pitching mound comes from statistician Bill Deane, who says, "The first mention of the mound in the official baseball rules appears in 1903. Installed "to prevent trickery," rule 1, section 2 required that "the pitcher's plate shall not be more than 15 inches higher than the base lines or home plate."

The height was reduced to 10 inches in 1969.

How to choose the right baseball glove for a pitcher

If you're a pitcher, you'll want to make sure that you choose a proper ball glove. Of the few pieces of equipment you'll use (including a good jacket and maybe a pitcher's toe for your cleats or some long-sleeve Under Armour shirts) your glove is probably the single-most important piece of equipment you have.

Now this doesn't mean you need to go out and plunk down $300 on a brand new mitt. There are good deals to be had for much less money. But when choosing your glove, there are a few things I suggest your glove has: Purchase a glove that's 11-3/4 to 12 inches, that has a closed web (to hide the baseball, of course), and that's all one color (e.g., all brown or all black).

If you are a guy like me who leaves your index finger outside the back of your glove, then do try to get a piece of leather to cover it.

Some glove companies such as Rawlings are offering this on their gloves. (If you don't wear Rawlings, you can simply take your glove to a leather shoe repair shop and have a piece of leather affixed to the back of your mitt.)

The reason this is important is because often, without knowing it, pitchers tip off their off-speed pitches by making subtle movements with their index finger. If it's covered, however, those movements are shielded from view.

Rawlings, SSK, Mizuno, and Zett (shown above right) make good gloves. Wilson and Nakoma tend to be on the heavy side while Akadema and Nike tend to be a bit lighter in weight. Another company, comparable to Akadema, is Yennaco. These gloves are made by Jay Yennaco, a friend of mine and former Chicago Cubs player.

Most premium-leather baseball gloves have a "break in" time of about three or four weeks. Baseball blogger Joe Janish, a regular contributor to my Let's Talk Pitching Baseball Forum offers some helpful tips on "How to Break in Your Glove" here.