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A lot of special equipment is needed to play baseball. All people know that bats, balls, and gloves are needed to play the game, but they do not know how much this equipment has changed over the years.

When baseball first started the players did not wear gloves. They played bare-handed. The first gloves were very thin and only covered the palm of their hand. Today there are many kinds of gloves. The catcher's mitt is big, round, and padded. The first baseman's mitt is longer than the other fielders' gloves. There are infielders' gloves and outfielders' gloves. The outfielders' gloves are bigger than the infielders' gloves.

When baseball first started the bases were four foot high stakes. Players would run into them and get hurt so they tried big flat rocks, but players still got hurt. Finally they used cloth sacks filled with sand. That's how they came up with the modern day bases.

The first catchers did not wear any safety equipment. Today they wear a face mask, helmet, chest protector, shin guards, and a cup. In the past, batters did not wear helmets. The first helmets were worn by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1952. They had to wear them the whole game, not just to bat. After a few years they decided to wear them only when they were up to bat. The first helmets did not have ear flaps. The ear flap was designed for Little League and copied by the major leagues.

In the major leagues only wooden bats are used. The major leagues say that a bat can not be longer than 42 inches long, and can only be 2 3/4 inches in diameter at the thickest point. The best wood to make bats out of is white ash. White ash is hard and strong, and it has a little bit of "give" to it. A bat made out of white ash helps absorb some of the shock when hitting a baseball pitched at 90 mph or more. Bats are cut and shaped to the hitter's specifications. Some major league players might use as many as 60 to 70 bats in one season!!!

Baseballs are all made to be the same size and weight. All baseballs are 9 to 9 1/4 inches in circumference. All baseballs weigh 5 to 5 1/4 ounces. The center of a baseball is a cork ball. The cork ball is covered with rubber. Cotton and wool yarn are tightly wound around the cork and rubber center. 150 yards of cotton yarn (450 feet) and 219 yards of wool yarn (652 feet) are used to make a baseball. If the yarn was stretched out it would be longer than three football fields! The cover of a baseball is made out of cowhide. Two pieces shaped kind of like a peanut are sewn together by hand with exactly 108 stitches. The Rawlings Company makes all the baseballs for the major leagues.