SPORTING GOODS: Out-Mitting the Competition

Out-Mitting the Competition

Ever notice how some North American baseball fielders seem to have gloves as big as bushel baskets? Not for long. This season major-league baseball plans to enforce an old rule, previously ignored, that bans any glove larger than 12 in. from heel to tip. The clampdown has sent glovemakers hustling to redesign mitts, some of which exceed 14 in.

St. Louis-based Rawlings, which supplies more than half of all big-league mitts, believes it has beaten such rivals as Wilson and Mizuno to home plate. "We were in a much better position to respond quickly. We had new designs and new cutting...

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