By WILL GRAVES, AP Nationwide Author
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Andrew McCutchen hasn’t had the dialog with 7-year-old son Metal but, however the Pittsburgh Pirates star is aware of it’s most likely coming sooner or later.
Metal, already taking part in in a youth baseball league, will most likely come house at one level and ask his five-time All-Star father if he can have no matter sizzling merchandise his teammates is likely to be carrying throughout a given spring.
McCutchen plans to accommodate Metal up to a degree. The oldest of McCutchen’s 4 kids is already rocking an arm sleeve, simply the best way dad does.
But if Metal is hoping his father will spring for a sliding mitt — a padded glove a participant can slip over considered one of their arms to guard it ought to the hand get stepped on whereas diving headfirst for a base — he most likely shouldn’t get his hopes up.
McCutchen, who has stolen 220 bases on the main league degree, has by no means worn one. And he’s fast to level out the following time the cleat of a fielder mashes his hand can even be the primary.
Nonetheless, the 38-year-old understands. As soon as upon a time, he was a 20-something who epitomized baseball cool, from his dreadlocks (lengthy since shorn) to his goatee to his rope chain to the occasional cranium cap he wore beneath his batting helmet, all of it designed to intensify McCutchen’s innate mix of expertise and charisma.
“It’s all in regards to the drip,” McCutchen mentioned with a smile.
Even when the “drip” (Gen Z slang for trendy garments and their equipment) emphasizes vogue over operate, significantly in relation to the gloves — which look a bit like oven mitts — which can be turning into simply as ubiquitous within the Little Leagues as they’re within the main leagues.
Security and self-expression
Former main leaguer Scott Podsednik (profession stolen base complete: 309) is credited with “inventing” the sliding mitt through the late phases of his 11-year profession.
Uninterested in having his hand stepped on, Podsednik labored with a hand therapist for an answer. The preliminary mitts have been comparatively easy. A 2009 image of Podsednik sliding into second base exhibits his left hand coated in what seems like a padded modified batting glove, all wrapped in black to match the trim on his Chicago White Sox uniform.
Issues have gotten significantly extra intricate through the years. Google “sliding mitt designs” and also you’ll discover themes starting from the American flag to an ice cream cone to aliens to a poop emoji ( sure, actually ).
Scott McMillen, a lawyer within the Chicago space, had no plans to get into the baseball accent enterprise. He first took discover of sliding mitts when his son Braydon, then 10, identified considered one of his teammates had one and mentioned mainly, “Oh hey dad, wouldn’t or not it’s good if I had one, too.”
They headed to an area sporting items retailer, the place McMillen was shocked on the selection obtainable.
That was round 2021. By early 2024, McMillen had launched “ Goat’d,” a specialty baseball accent firm with all the things from sliding mitts to batting gloves to arm sleeves to headbands and extra, lots of them religiously impressed.
Gross sales throughout their first full yr? Over 1 million items.
“We have been shocked at how giant {the marketplace} is,” McMillen mentioned.
Perhaps he shouldn’t have been.
Youth sports activities have bounced again from the COVID-19 pandemic. The Aspen Institute’s 2024 State of Play report famous that the participation ranges in sports activities amongst kids ages 6-17 have been the best they’ve been since 2015. Baseball’s numbers have steadied following a decline. Little League Worldwide instructed The Related Press final fall that greater than 2 million youngsters performed baseball or softball below its umbrella the world over, an uptick over 2019.
Lots of these youngsters are additionally followers of the sport, a few of whom could have observed their favourite main leaguer sporting a mitt once they’re on the bases. Sure, that was San Diego Padres star Fernando Tatis Jr. sliding throughout house plate ( feetfirst, by the best way ) with a brilliant yellow mitt on his left hand within the ninth inning of a 2-1 win over Pittsburgh final weekend.
It’s one of many some ways through which the sport has advanced through the years. When McMillen grew up, there wasn’t a lot swag to go round.
“We had our baseball uniform and our glove (and) everybody seemed the identical, everybody was the identical,” he mentioned. “Now, everybody needs to precise themselves individually. One of the best ways to try this with out performing like a clown is to put on one thing that exhibits individuals who you might be.”
Self-expression, nonetheless, doesn’t precisely come low cost, significantly in an period when top-of-the-line bats are $400 or extra. What quantities to an entry-level sliding mitt can go for $40, however Goat’d and others have variations that may fetch double that.
That hasn’t stopped gross sales from being brisk, and McMillen factors out it’s not merely a luxurious merchandise.
“We don’t play soccer with Forties security gear,” he mentioned. “You are feeling higher within the (batter’s) field when you could have one thing that protects you, proper? With a sliding mitt, it’s additionally like, ‘Hey that is enjoyable. It’s cool. I wish to be like my fave highschool participant, like my favourite school participant.’”
It’s turning into more and more widespread for McMillen and different members of the corporate’s workers to identify Goat’d gear on the discipline. In current months, they’ve popped up in youth tournaments from Georgia to Las Vegas, typically within the again pockets of gamers as younger as 6 or 7. McMillen can’t assist however shake his head to see his product grow to be a part of the time-honored custom of children imitating their heroes.
Which is sweet for enterprise and, oh by the best way, most likely pointless.
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Youth ballplayer Josiah Jones bats throughout youth baseball sport in Monroeville, Pa., together with his sliding matt in his again pocket on April 27, 2025. (AP Photograph/Gene J. Puskar)
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Youth ballplayer Josiah Jones bats throughout youth baseball sport in Monroeville, Pa., together with his sliding matt in his again pocket on April 27, 2025. (AP Photograph/Gene J. Puskar)
The stress to maintain up
Right here’s the factor: In most — if not all — youth baseball leagues, headfirst slides that will require a participant to stretch out their hand to safe the bag are unlawful.
In Little League, for instance, stealing bases for gamers 12 and below is uncommon as a result of the participant can take off solely after the ball has reached the batter. And even when they do bolt for the following base, they’ve to slip feetfirst. The one occasions in Little League {that a} baserunner can dive headfirst towards a base is when they’re returning to it whereas in a rundown or throughout a pickoff try, each of that are additionally uncommon.
That doesn’t cease the gamers from wanting a sliding mitt. It additionally doesn’t cease their dad and mom from shopping for them, all a part of the stress to “sustain with the Jones” that has virtually been part of youth sports activities tradition for the reason that first time any individual got here to apply with a batting glove or wristbands.
It’s a phenomenon Chelsea Cahill and her household has identified for years. The longtime educator who lives simply east of Columbus, Ohio, has spent a lot of the final decade shuttling her three boys from apply to video games to tournaments.
What she and her husband have realized through the years is that some developments come and go, however the stress to have the precise stuff stays.
“There’s all the time that feeling of ‘That is the following new factor’ or ‘That is what you’ve acquired to get,’” Cahill mentioned.
They appeased their sons up to a degree, however solely up to a degree.
Final summer season their youngest son Braxton, then 11, and the remainder of the youngsters on his journey group saved pestering their dad and mom to purchase sliding mitts. Coming into the ultimate event, the group mothers determined to offer in.
Kind of.
Fairly than plop down that type of cash for one thing they didn’t really need, the mothers headed to an area greenback retailer and acquired them precise oven mitts — the type used to drag tonight’s dinner from out of the oven. Common retail worth? Lower than a cup of espresso on the fuel station.
Oh, and the youngsters liked them, and wore them through the sport. Cahill posted video of them taking part in with the mitts caught of their again pocket to her TikTok account. The video is now at 12 million views and counting.
“They thought it was hilarious, however we didn’t actually suppose they’d put on them for the remainder of the event,” Cahill mentioned. “We have been improper. They actually embraced it!”
Amongst viewers of that TikTok, by the best way, have been the individuals at Goat’d, who despatched Braxton a few mitts in consequence.
The excellent news is, Cahill now received’t have to purchase one for Braxton this spring. But there’s additionally one thing else she has realized via the years: This time in her boys’ lives is fleeting.
For proof, simply have a look at her calendar. Her two older sons — those who performed journey baseball similar to Braxton, and requested for all of the cool stuff their teammates had, similar to Braxton has — gave up baseball by the point they acquired to highschool.
Her recommendation to folks who is likely to be feeling the monetary pinch of what it takes to play lately: Chill out.
“We’ve realized as dad and mom is to cease taking it so severely,” she mentioned. “They’re youngsters. Allow them to have enjoyable.”
The fact
A day after tons of of members of the Monroeville Baseball and Softball Affiliation marched via the Pittsburgh suburb’s well-appointed neighborhood park, the common season is in full swing.
All 4 fields are alive with the chatter of coaches, dad and mom and girls and boys aged wherever from 5-12.
Over on Subject 1, the Rays are in the midst of their season opener. Enjoying first base, Josiah Jones has his glove on the prepared, with a black sliding mitt noticeably protruding of his left again pocket.
Per the league guidelines, the Rays and the opposite gamers on the “Bronco” degree (ages 11-12), play precise full-on baseball. They will take leads and steal bases each time they like, although headfirst slides are solely allowed when returning to a base, similar to in Little League.
Longtime MBSA government commissioner Josh Plassmeyer is milling about, making an attempt to maintain tabs on all the things. Plassmeyer outlawed sliding mitts on his son Grant’s 10-and-under event group, calling them a “distraction” as a result of gamers would spend a lot time twiddling with them as soon as they acquired to first base, they’d miss indicators from the third-base coach.
About 50 ft away, Jones settles into the field and rips a ball to left-center discipline. His lengthy legs carry him previous first base, and he cruises into second with a straightforward double.
As his teammates erupted within the dugout, Jones beamed for a short second. Then, because the opposing pitcher stepped onto the rubber, he took an aggressive lead off second and eyed third.
His again pocket, the one the place his sliding mitt had been half-hour earlier than, was empty.
