Glove question

[UmpJM]

TussAgee11,

Because of one particular personal experience, I have done a fair amount of research into the question you ask.

I can tell you the following:

1. If you are playing under OBR rules, ALL legal first baseman's mitts/gloves are legal for the catcher to use. (JEA supports this assertion, while J/R does not. I am not sure what the J/R rationale is.)

2. If you are playing under FED rules, it is also legal for the catcher to use a first baseman's mitt/glove.

3. If you are playing under "official" LL rules, it is NOT legal for a catcher to use a first baseman's mitt/glove. The catcher MUST use a "catcher's mitt", although no specific criteria are offered by which one could determine whether the "thing" on the catcher's "catching hand" was legal or not. By my read, what a hockey goalie wears on his "catching hand" would be legal under the LL rules.

As an unrelated point of information, no catcher who has ever caught for a team I have coached has ever played catcher while not equipped with what anyone would consider a legal catcher's mitt.

JM