I think Varitek just doesn't tighten his webbing, he keeps it very, very loose. Every time I see him catch I think the balls going to break through the pocket. Very flimsy, I would hate to try and catch with a mitt like that.
Could just be the way he prefers to have his mitt.
-------------------------------------------------- I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I toss one that ain't never been seen by this generation
Only the upper part of Varitek’s pocket is loose. The lower part of the pocket (where a catcher is supposed to receive the baseball) is all one piece with the rest of the palm of the glove (see link). I know sometimes a catcher has to catch a ball further up in the area of the glove that is loose on Varitek’s mitt, but most of the time this should have no effect on how the catcher receives the ball. In fact, if you watch Varitek catch, you can see the upper part of the pocket flopping around when the ball hits his mitt. This wouldn’t happen if he caught the ball further up in the loose area of the pocket.
I got a new 1st bsae mitt and decided to experiment wiht my old ratty one and did that with my old 1st base mitt, and it does wonders for helping snatch throws that would maybe be snowcone catches. It was a bar pocket with x lacing so i could loosen it up and see what it could do. It could be why he does it, or maybe it just feels right to him. Dunno.
Posts: 41 | Location: Dyersburg | Registered: December 07, 2005
