How to measure hand for baseball glove?

How to Measure Hand for a Baseball Glove? Right Way

It’s almost impossible to not buy wrong-sized and ill-fitted baseball gloves. Every baseball player must have been there. It’s one of the most common mistakes that a lot of young players often make. How about learning about how to measure hand for a baseball glove? It’s surely going to help.

Would you ever go inside the field to play baseball with bigger shoes than your feet? How about getting a BBCOR bat smaller than your capacities? The answer to both questions should be a “No”. The same goes for gloves. Wrong-sized gloves are good for nothing. Otherwise, it can cause severe injury by letting the baseball slip and hitting your body or even face. This can get even scary. Let’s learn the basics of measuring the hand for the right baseball gloves.

How to know the right size of baseball gloves? Are there any tips to get suitable baseball gloves? All of these questions will be answered in this blog post. So keep on reading and get to know much more about the topic.

How to Measure Hand for a Baseball Glove?

Snug-fit gloves are as important as right-sized cleats and baseball bats. Huge gloves can keep irritating you by falling off during the game. On the other hand, tight and smaller-sized gloves are just as useless because they won’t let you perform on the field. The best thing every player must do is get the right baseball gloves according to their hands.

There are some factors to keep in mind while selecting the right gloves for baseball. It’s recommended to measure the size of your hand to get the right baseball gloves. However, I’m going to share a universal guide for every sized hand so that you won’t find it an absolute struggle.

Size Chart of Baseball Gloves

Gloves SizePositionLevelAge
8.5″-10″All PositionT Ball3 to 6 years
11.5″-12″1st BasemanYouth7 to 12 years
10.25″-11.5″InfieldYouth7 to 12 years
11.5″-12.25″OutfieldYouth7 to 12 years
12″-13″1st BasemanAdult13+ years
11.25″-12″InfieldAdult13+ years
12″-12.75″OutfieldAdult13+ years

Significance of Choosing the Right Baseball Gloves

Why can’t I just grab any glove and wear it for baseball games? Well, you can’t. Following are a few reasons that describe the importance of choosing a baseball glove according to your hands.

  • Gloves with snug fitting won’t make you uncomfortable and annoyed while playing.
  • Your game will be affected greatly if you’re wearing ring wrong-size gloves.
  • The wrong size of gloves won’t help you grow as a baseball player.
  • Huge-sized gloves keep falling off and small-sized globes will make you irritated.
  • Consequently, you won’t be able to give your best in the game.

Anatomy of Baseball Gloves

To understand how to measure the hand of a baseball glove, it’s mandatory to know the basic anatomy and structure of baseball gloves. It will give you a better insight, for sure.

Bridge

The top part of the gloves is called a bridge. It’s typically made from leather. You can easily recognize this part as it is situated at the top of the web.

Web

As the name suggests, this part looks like a web that connects the fingers of the glove to the thumb. The web is one of the essential elements of baseball gloves. Also, it’s made of leather which makes it stronger and more resilient. 

How to measure hand for a baseball glove? - Web

However, there are two variations in web styles. One is open web style while the second one is closed web style. 

  • Do you know?

Closed web gloves give the edge to catchers and fielders as it works great for catching the ball. Whereas, open web gloves are great for transferring the ball which makes them good for infielders and outfielders.

Heel Pad

The main purpose of this part is to make the glove resilient and long-lasting. It is situated at the lower part of the gloves.

Palm Beaches

Take an idea from the name of this part. Palm is one of the most important parts of baseball gloves. It should be durable and comfortable on the hand. It’s situated at the center of the glove. Additionally, it comes with protective features to keep the hand of the player safe while catching the ball.

Lacing

Lacing is part of the glove that keeps it protected and in shape for a longer time. Also, it’s made of leather material which gives it extra support.

Do Positions of Baseball Players Matter?

Yes, the position of baseball players does matter when it comes to choosing right sized gloves. You must know the size and type of gloves you need according to your position on the field.

Outfielders

Outfielders should get gloves with deep and long pockets as it will help them catch the ball in a better way. Furthermore, gloves should be the exact size of the hand otherwise you won’t be able to wear them for a longer time. 

When it comes to size, youth outfielders should get gloves between 10.75″ and -12.5″. On the other hand, 12.5″ to 12.75″ is the right range for an adult outfielder.

Pitchers

The closed web is the right kind of glove for pitchers. It helps them pitch the ball. Also, pitchers can deceive the hitter or better as he won’t be able to see what the pitcher is doing with the ball.

First Basemen 

The right baseball glove for first basemen should have a striking design and advanced features. Such as it should be larger, wide open webbing, shallow pockets, and a unique design. These gloves come larger as size helps the player pick the ball up from the dirt. 

Infielder

Infielder gloves should provide flexibility and enough protection to prevent any hard hit of the ball. Besides that, youth infielder gloves should be 10.75″ to 11.75″ in size. On the other hand, adult infielders should go for 11.25″ to 12.25″ sizes. 

A Lot of new baseball players think that insider gloves should be bigger and huge but let me break it to you that it’s not. Don’t go for bigger gloves as they can cause a lot of trouble for you.

Catcher

Catcher’s gloves should be well padded to protect the hand of the player while fielding the ball. Measure the size of your hand to get snug-fit gloves as it’ll help you perform better on the field.

How to Measure Hand for Right Baseball Gloves?

If you’re struggling with measuring the size of your hand, then you need a proper guide for this purpose. That’s why we have compiled a basic and easy-to-understand guide so that you can measure your hand. Basically, there are two factors you should look at while measuring your hand.

  1. Index Finger Length
  2. Circumference of your Hand
How to Measure Hand for Right Baseball Gloves?

Index Finger Length

The length of the index and middle finger are two main aspects of choosing the right-sized gloves. Generally, the length of the index finger is a little smaller than the middle finger. 

In most cases, the middle finger is 0.25″ longer than the index finger. If that’s your case, then go for one size shorter pair of gloves. Well, there’s no rule of thumb. If you get confused with this method, then you should choose the size of the glove according to your position.

Circumference of your Hand

Circumference of the hand is another important factor to consider while choosing the right gloves. But do you know what the circumference hand is? Here you go. 

Circumference of the hand is the region between the index finger and the smallest finger. To put it simply, you can call it the palm of your hand. Measure your dominant and just below your knuckles

You need to measure your palm if you’re shopping online or customizing your glove. In addition to that, most baseball players have muscular hands and fingers. That means they need stretch-design gloves to have a perfect fitting. 

Seamless knit baseball gloves should be your choice if you want to get premium quality stretch gloves.

Frequently Asked Questions

For T-ball, 5 to 7 age is suitable for 10 to 11 inches gloves. While for youth, 8-12 age is considered best for 10-12 inches baseball gloves. 

No, 11-inches baseball gloves are not always too small. It solely depends on the size of the player’s hand. Kids under the age of 8 should go for 11″ gloves. Although, kids more than 8 years old should not get 11 inches of baseball. 

Well, not necessarily. 14-inch baseball gloves might be too big for catchers and pitchers. But the first baseman and outfielder should be comfortable with 14-inch baseball gloves. 

The most common and standard sizes of baseball gloves are 11.25-12″ and 11.5-12.5 for softball.

Baseball gloves shouldn’t be too tight and too loose around fingers and palms. It should fit snugly and perfectly without feeling suffocated.

Conclusion

Buying baseball gloves online is surely a tricky task to tackle as there’s a strong chance of getting the wrong-sized gloves. Too loose or too tight gloves are good for nothing and only make you extremely uncomfortable and annoyed throughout the game. So it’s better to check the standard sizing chart of baseball gloves that we’ve mentioned in this blog post. 

If you’re going to customs to make your gloves, then there’s less chance to end up with the wrong-sized gloves. All you need to do is measure your hand circumference and the length of your index finger. After that, go and select the right size of baseball gloves. Also, it’s one of the best ways to get the right gloves because every player has a different hand structure. 

Additionally, the position of the players also has a huge impact on choosing a certain kind of gloves. So, before making any decision, keep your position in mind. I’m hoping that you have learned some valuable knowledge from this blog post.

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