Batting Gloves vs Football Gloves – A Detailed Comparison
Paul Hall
In any sport, ultimate success is only possible with the proper equipment.
A player, however, can still produce a decent performance even without some of the gear.
Still, the right equipment often provides a necessary edge needed for the talent to come through and helps players be on top of their game.
For some, this may be a problem.
Top-notch equipment doesn’t come cheap and properly gearing up for just one sport can be hard on the budget.
When you add to the equation the fact that many athletes, especially in youth leagues, play more than one sport, you can understand how the equipment cost can pile up.
So, many young athletes and their parents look into using one piece of equipment for more than one sport.
Below, I’ll compare batting gloves vs football gloves and look into whether just one set of gloves can be used for both sports.
Table of Contents
Batting Gloves vs Football Gloves – What’s the Difference?
Table could not be displayed.Batting gloves and football gloves, usually used by wide receivers, are not so different. At just a glance, they are rather similar and it can be hard to spot a difference.
For this reason, some athletes use them interchangeably.
Still, each of them has some design features that make them more suitable for one sport or another.
Here are some of the major differences between these two pieces of equipment.
Materials Used
Depending on the model and the competition level, baseball gloves can feature different materials used in their manufacturing.
The most expensive are leather gloves, made of genuine leather.
Another option is synthetic gloves, made of synthetic leather. This is material specifically developed to provide a feel that is as close as possible to the natural leather.
Finally, we have hybrid gloves.
They commonly feature a leather palm, while the back and fingers are made of nylon, synthetic leather, or similar artificial material.
Football gloves manufacturers also use a couple of different materials. The upper part, depending on the model, is made of leather, synthetic leather, or spandex.
Genuine leather is the best option as it provides the most ventilation. The football glove palm typically features cabretta leather or latex.
Cabretta leather is more durable and provides a better grip, while the latex better fits the hand and is more flexible.
Grip and Traction
Grip and traction are where the distinctions between batting and football gloves are the most important, as these characteristics are directly tied to successful performance in either sport.
Football gloves, unlike those used for batting, have retraction lines and bumps on their surface on the palm side.
These are essential for wide receivers and other skill positions in football as they allow them to catch the ball easier.
Baseball gloves don’t offer this level of grip but may have some stickiness to them, so the bat doesn’t slip fly away from the hands of a batter.
Padding and Shock Absorption
Baseball batters, particularly at a pro-level, often hit the balls coming their way at a speed higher than 100 mph.
Hitting the hard baseball flying this fast, produces a lot of vibration. Over time, these vibrations can be a serious health risk and lead to injuries.
For this reason, batting gloves commonly have thick padding whose purpose is to absorb some of the shock and make the hit easier on the batter’s hands.
On the other hand, football gloves are much thinner, without the extra padding. The first reason is that football is softer and doesn’t fly nearly as fast as baseball.
Secondly, thick padding would make catching and controlling the football much more difficult.
Can You Use Football Gloves as Batting Gloves?
While they will not contribute to optimal performance, in the lack of better options, football gloves can be used as batting gloves.
However, it’s important to choose gloves with properties that can be useful in baseball, too. Firstly, you should make sure that the football glove you use for batting provides a solid grip.
There’s nothing more dangerous on the baseball field than slipper hands. Fortunately, most football gloves on the market have a quality grip on the palm.
Also, these gloves should have at least decent ventilation, so your hands won’t sweat excessively while batting.
Furthermore, the glove should feel comfortable but also fit tightly so you can have full control of the bat.
Finally, the thing that is the hardest to find in football gloves, padding, and protection.
It’s crucial that the football glove used for batting has some extra padding to provide maximum protection for heavy hits.
Can You Use Batting Gloves for Football?
There’s nothing stopping you from using baseball gloves for football, at least concerning the rules of the game.
Nevertheless, it will likely hinder your performance for a couple of reasons.
The lack of stickiness and grip of batting gloves can be a serious issue when trying to catch a football.
The stickiness is crucial for catching and controlling the ball, as most wide receivers will tell you.
Batting gloves have some tackiness to them to make sure that the bat doesn’t slip, but nowhere near the level needed in football.
Also, extra padding on baseball gloves is a problem. The bulky build means more weight and less flexibility, which limits the hand motion.
Football players don’t need that extra protection and it just gets in the way of successfully controlling the ball.
After all, batting gloves are designed for closed hands, while football players usually use open hands.
Conclusion
The rules of both football and baseball don’t prohibit using gloves for each sport interchangeably. And, in fact, a lot of players use just one set of gloves for both sports.
Nevertheless, this is mostly the case at lower, amateur, and youth levels of football and baseball.
More frequently, baseball players use football gloves, as it seems that it doesn’t affect the performance as much as in the opposite direction, when the batting gloves are used for football.
However, a higher level of competition demands optimal player production which is only possible with the equipment specifically designed to enhance performance.
