The story behind Rajai Davis’ oven mitt
By Jason Beck
If you watched the Tigers on television today, or if you’ve been to a Tigers game this spring, and you haven’t seen much of Rajai Davis the last couple years, you might be wondering why he has an oven mitt on his left hand.
That’s OK. He hears it all the time. He laughs about it, too.
“Yeah, it’s good for baking,” he said Monday. “Baking on the bases.”
Not surprisingly, it’s a protective glove for his left hand. It keeps him from jamming a finger sliding into a bag, and it also gives him some padding over his hand and his wrist in case an infielder steps on his hand as he’s sliding in. He has worn one since at least 2012 to protect his hands.
Other players have worn one after injuring fingers or wrists. Davis said he adopted it after he had a close call and saw someone else suffer a far worse fate.
“I watched a guy stealing and go in with his hand and break his finger,” Davis said. “I saw that and said that’s not going to happen to me. So I started wearing that.”
The lack of fingers on the glove prevent him from jamming any of them when he slides. The length of it, which completes the oven mitt look, protects his wrist. The combination gives him some peace of mind being aggressive on the basepaths.
The last couple years, Davis had a blue version that matched the blue on Toronto’s jersey. This year’s sliding glove is much darker, almost black.
“It’s pretty protective,” he said. “It’s pretty good. It’s not too hard. It’s pliable. It gives. I mean, it’s big, not like some of the other ones you have, though.”
There is some regulation, by the way, as to how long such a glove can be. Add too much padding, and it gives him an extra inch or two, or maybe more, to beat a tag. So a lot of the padding goes on top of the fingers, not beyond it.
“This one’s official,” he said with a big smile.