Catchers mitts palms stay nicer than fielders gloves...

[rmiller]

I have noticed that the inside palm of old catchers mitts stay much nicer than old fielders gloves, where it’s not uncommon for the palms to be very worn, cracked, etc. And generally speaking, palms of old catchers mitts stay much nicer by comparison. Any idea why this is?

[Gloveguy]

Up through the late sixties most fielders did not wear anything on their hand other than their glove. In the late sixties some started wearing a golf glove and then a market developed for gloves to be used for fielder and first base mitts. Catchers, however, had been using various devices such as sponges, "falsies", etc. for decades to cushion their hands from repeated exposure to fast balls. Perhaps an unintended consequence was that the palm of the cathcer's mitt was not as exposed to perspiration??

[BretMan]

That was one thought I had, too- catchers have had a tendency to wear some extra protection on their glove hand.

One more thought- it seems that catcher's mitts tend to use thicker leather for the inner lining than what is found on most typical fielder's gloves.