To play baseball a lot of special equipment is needed. Everyone knows that bats, balls, and gloves are needed to play the game, but most people don't know how much this equipment has changed through the years. In the beginning baseball players did not wear gloves, they played bare-handed. The first gloves were very thin and only covered the palm of the hand.
Today there are several different kinds of gloves.
The catcher's mitt is big, round, and padded. The first baseman's mitt is longer than the other fielders' gloves, and an outfielders' glove is larger than an infielders' glove. The first bases used in baseball were four-foot high stakes. Too many players ran into them and were hurt, so they tried big flat rocks. Players were still being injured, so they finally filled soft sacks with sand.