Jason Varitek's mitt

[wickedwoman11]

I was watching tonight's Red Sox/Rays game, and can't help but notice how incredibly loose the webbing is on Jason Varitek's mitt. I've never caught fastpitch (and certainly not baseball) but I can't help but wonder how he can catch power pitchers like Josh Beckett and Jonathan Papelbon and not worry about a ball smashing right through that floppy web. Yes, I know the ideal is to catch it in the pocket, but still.

Any current or former catchers out there use a similarly floppy web?

[MVALZ]

Its been like that since he slapped Arod with it. Won two World Series since...why change.

Does throw out the shallow pocket / quick release theory

[wickedwoman11]

Its been like that since he slapped Arod with it.

Sigh. That was my computer's wallpaper for a year after that. And it still occasionally is the wallpaper on my Blackberry -- definitely on Sox/Yanks game days. I have loved Jason Varitek ever since he fed a leather sandwich to that overpaid whining pretty boy. Uh oh, I better be careful, there are bound to be Yankees fans around here who may not like my characterization of their third baseman. What can I say? I'm biased. I've been a Madonna fan since the 80s, but now whenever I hear her music, I get a skeevy feeling.

[red_sox_fan86]

It's not the same glove as '04. He gets a new All-Star 35" mitt every year and has the web pretty well stretched out after a month or so. He's also added a leather wrist guard within the last few years that he didn't use before.

[docglov]

If you think about it for a second its only the lace that stops every ball how tight or lose doesn't matter. The perfect catching web would be a woven mess of only laces as proven by Red Roff which was rapidly out lawed by MLB

doc

[glovemason]

Any truth that DiMaggio complained about the Rolfe glove for the catch in the World Series in 55? If so, didn't Dimaggio use the RR model?

[robin_buckeye]

I think the catch you're referring to was in '47 and made by Al Gionfriddo.

The story was that DiMaggio was upset and felt that the rolled lace glove enabled the catch and complained to the league. There are pictures of DiMaggio himself with a rolled lace glove.

Also, I think that was Al Gionfriddo last MLB game.