How did baseball players efficiently catch a ball with those small, unsophisticated gloves they wore years ago

Question

Seems to me that today's players have no excuse whatsoever for making an error with the epuipment they have at their disposal. It boggles my mind how the players of yesteryear ever did it!

Answer 1

Makes you wonder what gloves, etc. are gonna look like inanother fifty years? Good topic... makes you think...

Answer 2

Actually its not that hard. I know from experience that in most cases it is easier to use a smaller glove ie...11" (or an infielders glove) than it is a big glove. I have played every position on the diamond and I can say without a doubt a small glove is easier to use.

Basically if you are good enough to play you should have the hand eye coordination to be able to catch a ball with anything even a bare hand which I have seen on several occasions. ESPECIALLY AT THE MLB LEVEL

YES THE PLAYERS TODAY HAVE NO EXCUSES AND ACTUALLY A MAJORITY OF THE ERRORS IN MLB TODAY ARE BECAUSE OF THE PLAYERS JUST BEING PLAIN LAZY.

Answer 3

HANDS AND EYES !!!

There is a training glove that is small and flat that forces players to use TOTAL skill with there hands and eyes. get good at it and put a glove in your hand and you are golden...

You can also get old footage of games from the early days at some libraries... The fact is they did catch the ball with these gloves... Certainly not as easily and certainly newer bigger gloves make for more catches..

BUT you have to admire the skill knowing the old tools used..

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baseball training aids, baseball batting tools,

Answer 4

Fielding % has increased over the years. The quickest way to look at this is to check the 3rd baseball stats throughout the major leagues today and then take a look back at the 3rd basemens in mid 1900's or however you want to look at things. I think it's pretty much the "practice makes perfect" rule . They practiced with poor equipment therefore they could play with poor equipment. I can't really think of anything else it may be...

Answer 5

Players put their hands under the ball and lowered them so the ball didn't bounce off their hands. If you get a chance to see a vintage base ball mach they will catch that way. Henry Chadwick describes it in his 1868 book The American Game of Base Ball.

Answer 6

They didn't, not always.

Fielding percentages tend to rise as euqipment improves.

Answer 7

They did it with the leather that was on their hands.