Baseball catcher's protective handwear

Abstract

Baseball catcher's protective handwear including a catcher's mitt and an improved non-connected inner glove for wearing inside the mitt, the inner glove including (1) a tactile palm-surrounding portion which leaves at least the little finger, ring finger, middle finger and thumb substantially uncovered, (2) a supple index-finger portion that has padding affixed thereto over the phalanges, and (3) padding affixed over the metacarpal region of the palm adjacent to the index finger, thereby to provide continuous protection to the most crucially-vulnerable parts of a baseball player's hand, while simultaneously providing properties of gripping-finger-and-thumb freedom, glove-interior surface feel and in-mitt hand adjustment closely similar to that of a naked hand inside an outer glove.

1 . In a baseball catcher's protective handwear of the type including a catcher's mitt and a non-connected inner glove for wearing inside the catcher's mitt, the improvement wherein the inner glove comprises:
 (a) a tactile palm-surrounding portion extending from a proximal edge around the wrist to finger-adjacent and thumb-adjacent distal edges positioned such that the palm-surrounding portion extends over the hypothenar eminence and the thenar eminence while leaving at least the little finger, ring finger, middle finger and thumb substantially uncovered;   (b) a supple index-finger portion extending from the palm-surrounding portion such that it receives and envelops the index finger, the index-finger portion having padding affixed thereto over the distal, middle and proximal phalanges; and   (c) padding affixed over the metacarpal region of the palm adjacent to the index finger,   
       thereby providing targeted index-finger protection and index-finger-adjacent metacarpal region protection with gripping-finger-and-thumb freedom, in-mitt hand adjustment, and glove-interior surface feel, to facilitate catching baseballs. 
     
     
         2 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 1  wherein there is a single finger-adjacent distal edge of the palm-surrounding portion which is spaced from the little finger, ring finger and middle finger sufficiently such that at least portions of the metacarpal regions of the palm adjacent to the little finger, the ring finger and the middle finger are substantially uncovered. 
     
     
         3 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 2  wherein the thumb-adjacent distal edge of the palm-surrounding portion is spaced from the thumb sufficiently such that at least a thumb-adjacent portion of the metacarpal region of the palm is also substantially uncovered. 
     
     
         4 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 2  wherein the palm-surrounding portion includes a portion adjacent to the little-finger side of the hand which is of an elastic material facilitating skin-engagement of the palm-surrounding portion. 
     
     
         5 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 4  wherein the palm-surrounding portion includes a portion adjacent to the thumb which is of an elastic material facilitating skin-engagement of the palm-surrounding portion. 
     
     
         6 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 1  wherein the thumb-adjacent distal edge of the palm-surrounding portion is spaced from the thumb sufficiently such that at least a thumb-adjacent portion of the metacarpal region of the palm is substantially uncovered. 
     
     
         7 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 1  wherein for each of the little, ring and middle fingers there is a separate finger-adjacent distal edge of the palm-surrounding portion. 
     
     
         8 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 7  wherein such separate finger-adjacent distal edges are positioned short of the proximal interphalangeal creases of the little, ring and middle fingers. 
     
     
         9 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 8  having a thumb-adjacent portion wherein a tab is attached for gripping purposes to each of the finger-adjacent distal edges and the thumb-adjacent portion, to facilitate easy removal of the handwear. 
     
     
         10 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 8  wherein such separate finger-adjacent distal edges are positioned at the palmar digital creases of the little, ring and middle fingers. 
     
     
         11 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 7  wherein the palm-surrounding portion includes a portion adjacent to the little-finger side of the hand which is of an elastic material facilitating skin-engagement of the palm-surrounding portion. 
     
     
         12 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 11  wherein the palm-surrounding portion includes a portion adjacent to the thumb which is of an elastic material facilitating skin-engagement of the palm-surrounding portion. 
     
     
         13 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 1  wherein the padding over the distal, middle and proximal phalanges of the index-finger portion includes pad portions separated from one another, thereby facilitating index-finger bending between the index-finger phalanges. 
     
     
         14 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 13  wherein there is single finger-adjacent distal edge of the palm-surrounding portion which is spaced from the little finger, ring finger and middle finger sufficiently such that at least portions of the metacarpal regions of the palm adjacent to the little finger, the ring finger and the middle finger are substantially uncovered. 
     
     
         15 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 13  wherein for each of the little, ring and middle fingers there is a separate finger-adjacent distal edge of the palm-surrounding portion. 
     
     
         16 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 1  wherein the tactile palm-surrounding portion and supple index-finger portions are of a material having a thickness of no more than about 0.40 mm. 
     
     
         17 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 16  wherein the material is cabretta leather. 
     
     
         18 . The baseball catcher's protective handwear of  claim 1  wherein the padding is a shock-absorbing material. 
     
     
         19 . In a baseball catcher's inner protective handwear for use with a catcher's mitt, wherein the inner glove comprises:
 (a) a tactile palm-surrounding portion extending from a proximal edge around the wrist to finger-adjacent and thumb-adjacent distal edges positioned such that the palm-surrounding portion extends over the hypothenar eminence and the thenar eminence while leaving at least the little finger, ring finger, middle finger and thumb substantially uncovered;   (b) a supple index-finger portion extending from the palm-surrounding portion such that it receives and envelops the index finger, the index-finger portion having padding affixed thereto over the distal, middle and proximal phalanges; and   (c) padding affixed over the metacarpal region of the palm adjacent to the index finger,   
       thereby to provide targeted index-finger protection and index-finger-adjacent metacarpal region protection with gripping-finger-and-thumb freedom, in-mitt hand adjustment, and glove-interior surface feel, to facilitate catching baseballs. 
     
     
         20 . In a baseball player's protective handwear of the type including a ball-catching glove and a non-connected inner glove for wearing inside the ball-catching glove, the improvement wherein the inner glove comprises:
 (a) a tactile palm-surrounding portion extending from a proximal edge around the wrist to finger-adjacent and thumb-adjacent distal edges positioned such that the palm-surrounding portion extends over the hypothenar eminence and the thenar eminence while leaving at least the little finger, ring finger, middle finger and thumb substantially uncovered;   (b) a supple index-finger portion extending from the palm-surrounding portion such that it receives and envelops the index finger, the index-finger portion having padding affixed thereto over the distal, middle and proximal phalanges; and   (c) padding affixed over the metacarpal region of the palm adjacent to the index finger,   
       thereby to provide targeted index-finger protection and index-finger-adjacent metacarpal region protection with gripping-finger-and-thumb freedom, in-outer-glove hand adjustment, and glove-interior surface feel, to facilitate catching baseballs.