by No-Lite-Toe » January 25th, 2009, 3:35 am
Oakfan is right. That is the general purpose of the lite-toe. Pretty much the same principle of the very well designed first baseman's mitt. But the catchers mitt cannot be the same as the first baseman's because it needs to be more thick and durable all the way around to protect the catchers hand, particularly fingers and thumb from wicked fouled-back tips. Or even wicked pitches! Which brings to mind the very early catchers mitts of the 20's 30's and 40's that were made like pillows with the pocket area the same size as the ball. Catchers back then literally had to use two hands to catch pitches using those mitts which made the throwing hand vunerable to foul-back tips. Interesting. Anyway back to the lite-toe. My contention is, if a catcher needs to scoop a pitch out of the dirt he's already in an adverse situation. As long as he can get the mitt on the ball and keep it in front of him to keep base runners stayed put, he's done his job. I don't think scooping could do much better. So, somebody around thirty years ago came up with the lite-toe idea. As a result I think it's safe to say all catchers mitts are virtually made with the lite-toe. The only glove/mitt on the field that took on a noticeble change. I would think doc could shed some light on this.