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Are you interested in using a Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt?
Then you're at the right place. This article shows all HOTH catchers mitts in production and it gives a review of our top pick.
Scroll down for more…
Rawlings Heart of the Hide Catchers Mitt
If you're reading this, you probably already know a thing or two about Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitts.
Like how they're some of the most premium mitts in the game today.
Or how a significant number of big league catchers these days use a Heart of the Hide catchers mitt.
These are things you probably already have at least a passing familiarity with.
This post cuts to the chase and shows you an easy to read inventory of each Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt made today.
We also dig deep on details of the 33 inch PROCM33T, which we got our hands on recently and reviewed for this article.
Ready? Scroll on….
Review of Our Top HOTH Pick: The PROCM33T
We believe the top Heart of the Hide catchers mitt available today for baseball catchers is the PROCM33T.
Recently we spent some time working with a brand new PROCM33T and were impressed.
So we wanted to share our observations and the highlights of the mitt.
Leather
Out of the box it has a strong leather smell. Kind of like walking into an equipment room on the day that the new, fresh baseball gear is delivered. It was great.
The traditional tan-colored steer leather shell immediately jumps out. It gives off a cool, vintage vibe.
The leather itself is cut from high-quality steer hide.
Design
Red Rawlings logos are all over this mitt, but it looks great contrasted with the tan leather.
There is the Rawlings name in cursive stitching over the thumb, the red Rawlings R logo over the hand, and the traditional Rawlings square logo patch over the pinkie stall.
Also in that same area is an MLB logo patch and red stitching that says "THE GOLD GLOVE CO."
Comfort
Ok, enough about how it looks.
How does it feel?
First off, the leather feels firm and high quality, like it would hold up for a long time.
When you put your hand inside, it feels great. Secure yet roomy.
There is a loop on the left side for the pinkie finger and the right side for the thumb.
There's also roomy finger stalls for the third and fourth fingers but none for the index finger since it was built to stay on the outside.
It has extra padding on top of the leather shell for the index finger but you'll notice that the dark brown liner stops on each side of the index finger pad.
It's wide enough that it's but a problem for me but it might bug you if your index finger tends to move around a lot.
Above the hand is a comfy black, microfiber material that wicks up sweat.
One minor note… In this area is a square tag - like those white tags on the back of a t-shirt - that we recommend cutting off. It’s one of those little things that could get annoying quick.
Moving to the pocket, one thing I like is that the PROCM33T has a really good amount of padding. Better than many we've seen, to be honest.
It's a high quality catchers mitt and makes a beautiful pop sound when catching the ball.
Yet it takes some work to get to the point of catching with it, as it needs breaking in.
We'd suggest using some good glove oil and working it with your hands for a bit, then moving on to catch with it.
One other thing to mention is that the PROCM33T feels about average in weight. Meaning, it's not the lightest or the heaviest catchers mitt around.
The words "Lite Toe" are stamped on the outer edge of the pocket, which is a phrase Rawlings uses to describe the lighter weight of the glove's toe.
While that particular section of the mitt may be light, the entire mitt as mentioned is pretty average in weight.
That, however, doesn't detract from the fact that this is arguably the best Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt currently in existence.
Overall it has a lot of great things going for it, from its design and coloring to its leather and fit.
In short, we'd recommend the PROCM33T HOTH to baseball catchers needing a long-term, quality mitt.
Every Rawlings Heart of the Hide Catchers Mitt in Production
Versions for Baseball Catchers
R2G ContoUR Fit - PRORCM33UC
R2G - PRORCM33-23BGS
R2G - PRORCM33TB
Hyper Shell - PROCM41CCF
R2G - RPRORCM33C
R2G - RPRORCM33B
ColorSync 7.0 - RPROYM4GB
Speed Shell Yadier Molina - PROYM4BC
HOTH Gary Sanchez - PROGS24
Version for Fastpitch Softball Catchers
PROCM33FP-24G
Little Known Facts About Heart of the Hide Gloves
We're former players, coaches and huge fans of baseball and fastpitch softball here at Catchers Home.
And were also nerds.
We like doing lots of deep research about interesting things like gloves.
With that in mind, we wanted to share a few facts we found about Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitts, and the HOTH product line in general.
These aren't really widely known facts as far as we can tell.
So here's our tiny contribution of original research about HOTH.
- Rawlings filed the trademark for the phrase "Heart of the Hide" all the way back in 1959 - May 8, 1959, to be exact.
- The classic Heart of the Hide bull logo, which is still on the pocket of gloves today, has remained basically unchanged from the beginning. There's various Rawlings ads from the early 1960s that show the logo.
- The "Light Toe" design appears to have been created for Heart of the Hide gloves around 1980. That's when Rawlings filed the trademark for the phrase.
- Each modern Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt is manufactured in the Philippines. We have written earlier about the fact that almost every major glove brand makes its gloves outside the US now. Nokona is the one exception.
That's A Wrap!
We hope this article on Heart of the Hide catchers mitts was helpful.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.
Thanks for stopping by.