Did I screw up my daughter's 1st base mitt?

[kibadbo]

This might be the dumbest question you see all day, but I've spent two hours reading DFP posts and I still don't have a clue. My left-handed 15-year-old plays a lot of first base and will be playing more of it this spring. She is a solid player but seems to have an issue where she will have drops that just don't make sense. I mean it looks like the ball hits her pocket and it just pops out. In some cases, she drops a catch that looks so easy it almost looks like she dropped it intentionally.

Up until recently I just assumed she couldn't catch, and have been trying to help her by yelling "catch the damn ball!" That has not been as helpful as I thought it would be, but I noticed that she doesn't really have drops when she is using her other fielders glove for pitching and outfield.

She has been using a 13in All-Star System Seven 1st base glove for nearly 3 years. When we were breaking it in, I didn't give much thought to the ball size and it doesn't seem to have a nice pocket where the ball "fits". The palm pad is in more of a V-shape vs a U-shape if that makes any sense.

Could that be the issue? She seems to be able to catch otherwise. Or am I just trying to justify another glove purchase? If I do need to go with another glove, I'd love glove recommendations and any advice on how not to screw it up next time.

 

[Bonesaw]

Sounds like she needs to try a different glove!

Maybe try a normal fielders glove and see what happens

 

[ANNASDAD]

If I'm not mistaken this mitt, even though it's a baseball mitt has a Velcro wrist closure? If so is she pulling it as tight as possible to put the death squeeze on her wrist? If she's doing that it could be pulling against the back of the glove shell and not letting it close as easy as it should.

Velcro is of the devil and should be burned at the stake! It has no place on a ball glove!

 

[ArmWhip]

If I'm not mistaken this mitt, even though it's a baseball mitt has a Velcro wrist closure? If so is she pulling it as tight as possible to put the death squeeze on her wrist? If she's doing that it could be pulling against the back of the glove shell and not letting it close as easy as it should.

Velcro is of the devil and should be burned at the stake! It has no place on a ball glove!

What I often do with a wrist strap is pull it out of the plastic buckle, cut a hair tie, put it through the leather loop where the buckle is, then tie it back together. Then put the wrist strap though the hair tie, now when you close the glove the hair tie will stretch and there will be some give.

 

[Strike2]

A badly fitting or shaped glove can certainly make you look bad. However, poor technique also produces drops.

You said that "she doesn't really have drops when she is using her other fielders glove for pitching and outfield", and that qualified language suggests to me that she drops the ball occasionally using the other glove as well. My DD played pretty much everywhere at some point over a very long time. I can not only count her game drops (ball hits middle of glove) on one hand, I can explain why it happened in terms of blinding sun or terrible field lighting combined with a very hard hit ball. We worked on glove technique a LOT from a young age, and it was reinforced in team practice.

Lazy glove work will bite even more often than a deformed pocket.

 

[The Man In Blue]

I was simply going to ask, "Did you feed it to a rat? Then you didn't mess it up too bad."

Then I read this:

Up until recently I just assumed she couldn't catch, and have been trying to help her by yelling "catch the damn ball!" That has not been as helpful as I thought it would be, but I noticed that she doesn't really have drops when she is using her other fielders glove for pitching and outfield.

 

[kibadbo]

If I'm not mistaken this mitt, even though it's a baseball mitt has a Velcro wrist closure? If so is she pulling it as tight as possible to put the death squeeze on her wrist? If she's doing that it could be pulling against the back of the glove shell and not letting it close as easy as it should.

Velcro is of the devil and should be burned at the stake! It has no place on a ball glove!

OMG! You are like the Rainman of gloves. Yes, it does have a velcro closure. And yes, she has it as tight as it will go. We loosened the closure and it was noticeably easier to close. We can't play catch with it tonight, but I honestly think you figured it out.....................I'm still probably going to buy another glove though, you know, just to be safe.

 

[_MIA_]

OMG! You are like the Rainman of gloves.

Bahahhahha..

 

[ANNASDAD]

Bahahhahha..

Shut up!

 

[ANNASDAD]

Bahahhahha..

Don’t think I’ve ever been called Rainman before, compliment?