First Gloves: Jorge Posada

Modern things are great. Medicine, air travel, information at our fingertips. These are good things. And baseball gloves are better now, too. The leather is softer, they seem to be more durable, they have better padding, there are more models and options for the right fit, and so on.

But there are times when people screw things up in an attempt to modernize. The soulless conformity of new car designs, for instance. Sure, make them safer, and more comfortable, and more fuel efficient. But do all sedans and SUVs and pickups have to look basically the same? Throw some fins on there, add a little more chrome. Spruce them up.

And in baseball gloves, by all means continue to use the softer materials and make any number of models, colors, and sizes we may want. But please leave the players’ signatures inside. Don’t do this: