Rawlings’ Heart of the Hide leather isn’t just for baseball gloves anymore

As most folks know, not all baseball glove leathers are created equal.

The best leathers are taken from specially bred bovines, taken from a specific region of the animal’s body. Those leathers are then inspected for imperfections, then treated and worked to make them ideal for baseball gloves.

Rawlings’ Heart of the Hide is one of those leathers.

The durability and feel make the HoH a favorite among professional players and amateurs alike. And now, you can get Heart of the Hide leather in more than just gloves.

Rawlings Heart of the Hide Leather Wallet ($54.99)

Looking for a wallet that will last forever? Look no further. Includes 6 credit card pockets, two interior pockets and one big ol’ pocket for your cash.

These wallets are on pre-order until June 8. Shop now.

Rawlings Heart of the Hide Leather Travel Kit ($99.99)

A travel kit for players to take their game on the go. Includes two interior pockets.

This one’s also on pre-order with an expected ship date of June 8. Get one now.

Rawlings Heart of the Hide Leather Duffel Bag ($499.99)

Take your gym bag to the next level. Premium heart of the hide leather exterior, with an exterior front zip, back pocket and interior zip pocket. Includes a padded leather strap.

These ship directly from Rawlings, and you can expect to see yours in 3-10 days. Shop now.

Rawlings Heart of the Hide Leather Travel Organizer ($149.99)

This is the way to travel in style. Includes a clear ID pocket, passport pocket, boarding pass pocket, 2 interior zip pockets, currency pocket, 2 open pocket slots and 12 credit card pocket slots.

When you order this one, you can expect to see it on your doorstep in 3-10 days. Shop now.

Rawlings Heart of the Hide Leather Briefcase ($529.99)

State of the art design combined with a true classic glove leather creates a perfect balance to keep you at the top of your business game. Now go out and pitch that new account.

Includes exterior front and back zip pockets with two large main zip pockets for laptop case and file space.

These ship directly from Rawlings, so expect another 3-10 day ship time. Shop now.

Rawlings Heart of the Hide Leather Glove Chair ($4,699.99)

We’ve reached the crown jewel of Rawlings’ Heart of the Hide accessories: The Glove Chair.

If you’re looking for the perfect throne for your man cave, this is it. The glove chair is handmade by Rawlings’ master glove craftsmen in the Rawlings Glove Factory for an incredible, quality look and superb durability.

It can be customized, just like your baseball glove (call for details).

You can be sitting in your new glove chair in 3-10 days. Shop now.

Related: Looking for an actual Heart of the Hide baseball glove? We have those too!

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How good posture equals good baseball performance

From our friends at Crossover Symmetry, here’s a very quick primer on posture and the role it plays in athletic performance.

The things we do in our modern-day lifestyles — whether it’s hunching over our desks at school or slouching on the sofa in front of the TV — can lead to poor shoulder posture. We roll our shoulders forward, and that can lead to problems down the road in sports.

That’s especially true in baseball, where the shoulder and rotator cuff are so important.

Click for big (.pdf)

Proper shoulder positioning allows your shoulder girdle to perform to its potential. With shoulder muscles able to properly elongate and contract, you’ll get the most velocity on your throws, and you’ll have the most control.

But poor posture equals poor performance. Bad posture is linked with shoulder tightness in baseball players, and tight muscles are inefficient muscles. That means your throws won’t have that “oomph” behind them, and at worst, you can injure your shoulders.

So how do you avoid it?

First, stop slouching. Second, regularly stretch and perform mobility exercises on your shoulders and upper back. The primer includes a few examples to get you started.

It doesn’t take much. If you’re feeling tight, just add in 5 minutes of shoulder stretching a day, and you should see some improvement in your shoulder mobility.

Stretching is most effective when your shoulders and upper back are already warm (so, after practice is a good time for position players. Pitchers could do it after some light throwing.)

Taking those simple steps will help keep your posture good and your performance high.

Related: Keep your shoulders in top condition with a pair of Crossover Symmetry Cross Cords.

Got a case of ‘Dead Arm’? Here’s how to ressurrect it

The area in question

Ever have this happen?

You’re feeling healthy — plenty of energy — but when it comes time to pitch or throw, you can’t get any snap on the ball. There might be pain, or there might not. It might feel like your shoulder is catching on something, or it might not.

The big thing is that you just can’t throw like normal.

(Blue Jays) starter Mark Buehrle said, “There are times where you haven’t thrown in five days but you feel like you’ve thrown for 12 days in a row. I guess that’s what I think of when I hear about dead arm.

(From MLB.com)

If that describes you, you might have dead arm.

Dead arm is common for pitchers, but anyone can get it. It usually crops up early in the season — because players spend months away from the field and suddenly start throwing during early-season conditioning.

Once you back off the conditioning and start playing games, that extra stress on your shoulder capsule can cause it to flare up.

For Seattle starter Ryan Rowland-Smith and many other Major League pitchers, it’s mostly a Spring Training thing.

“You’re coming off an offseason where you have your own throwing program,” Rowland-Smith says.

“All of a sudden you get to camp and you’re throwing to bases, doing extra stuff. You’re on your legs all day, and that’s when you get that dead arm. You’re in the heat, with day games after day games. You’re up early in the morning. All those things factor into it.”

If you come down with a case of the dead arm, there’s not much you can do besides rest, stretch and slowly start working back into it.

In this case, prevention is best. And our friends at Crossover Symmetry have passed along some extra info and three tips for beating Dead Arm. Those tips are:

• Stretch. Regularly stretch the muscles and connective tissues in your shoulder. Most importantly, stretch the ligaments in the back of your shoulder joint by pulling your arm across your chest, pulling your bicep near your neck. If you don’t like doing it in your warm-up (it can affect how some pitchers pitch), it can be done after your workout/game/practice. Just make sure you are still warm when you’re doing it.
• Strengthen. Another contributor to dead arm is muscle imbalances. If your rotator cuff and scapular stabilizers are too weak to counterbalance the pull on your shoulders from your chest — or if your posture is bad — you can be susceptible to impingements and Dead Arm. You can strengthen these muscles with weight training or by using Crossover Symmetry.
• Rest. Ice your shoulder when necessary, pay attention to your pitch count, get enough sleep and make the most of your rest time.

Related: Strengthen your shoulders with a pair of crossover cords.

Jeepers creepers, wear some sunglasses and protect those peepers

Bryce Harper covers his bases with both eyeblack and sunglasses

Ever finish up a mid-day game or a doubleheader to find that you came down with a case of itchy, burning eyeballs?

It means your eyes got sunburned.

It’s true. You can get sunburn on your eyes, and if you spend a moderate amount of time outside in the sun (say, playing baseball) your eyes are susceptible to sun damage. While sunburn goes away, repeated sun damage can cause permanent problems. It can cause retinal damage, cataracts and even blindness.

That means there’s no reason not to protect your eyes, especially when you’re out between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. when the sun’s rays are the most direct.

When looking for sunglasses, it’s important to get a pair of shades with 99-100% UV protection. Anything less will actually make it worse — the curve on the lens will intensify the sun’s UV rays going into your eyes.

From there, it comes down to your personal style. We carry everything from simple Oakley M-Frames to MAXX HD sunglasses with MLB team logos on the sides.

Every pair of glasses we carry was chosen because they are fitted and designed for athletic wear, so you can be confident they won’t interfere with your play.

Related: Go for the full-Harper look with Rawlings Eye Black.

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Now Available: DeMarini’s 2014 lineup of BBCOR bats (CF5, Voodoo Paradox, Vexxum)

The engineers at DeMarini are a little like mad scientists. They’re always pushing the limits, cooking up new ways to beef up their baseball bats — fine-tuning balances, constructions, stiffness and extras.

They’ve gone from the lab to the cage, over and over.

The result is a trio of monster BBCOR bats. It’s got some names you’ll recognize — with the Vexxum, CF5 and Voodoo Paradox — but what’s new is the extra tweaks they’ve put on each bat to deliver the most power possible on each swing.

Let’s start with the Voodoo Paradox

The 2014 BBCOR Voodoo Paradox now has a bigger sweet spot than ever. It’s more powerful than any other bat in DeMarini’s lineup, thanks to a monster X10 Alloy barrel fine-tuned with thinner walls for a hotter, more responsive sweet spot.

With a new Paradox Composite handle, this bad boy is stiffer than ever. And as always, the Voodoo Paradox has some of the best barrel graphics out there.

Get it for $299.99 at Baseball Express.

Next up, there’s the Vexxum

DeMarini’s engineers pulled out all the stops on the 2014 Vexxum BBCOR, implementing a new Velocity System barrel design and dropping the center of mass deep in the handle.

That gives batters the lightest swinging aluminum barrel bat in DeMarini’s lineup. That translates into more speed, and with your bat speed up, you generate power unlike ever before. For two-piece hybrids, the Vexxum NVS is at the top of its class, so step into the box and start your engine.

Get it for $199.99.

And finally, there’s the CF5

While the Vexxum is DeMarini’s lightest swinging aluminum-barrel bat, the CF5 is their lightest overall.

The two-piece, all-composite construction allowed them to pull a few tricks with the bat’s design. It uses what DeMarini calls TR3 F.L.O. Composite technology throughout the bat, which involves a proprietary fusing technique in the layers of carbon, allowing engineers to create a stronger baseball bat with less weight.

Get it for $399.99.

Related: Get FREE SHIPPING on all bat orders!

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TODAY ONLY! Save $160 on the Louisville Omaha Adult BBCOR Baseball Bat

TODAY ONLY! Save $160 on the Louisville Omaha Adult BBCOR Baseball Bat.

If you liked your BESR Omaha bat you’ll love this BBCOR version! Superior feel, pop and balance remains the same. Features the same consistent Omaha bat performance that has been for 12 years. NCAA® approved.

Limited Quantities….order today!

Ready to bring the lumber? Check out Easton’s new 2013 Power Brigade

Building the perfect baseball bat is a complicated science. It’s about more than just responsive barrel walls, stiff handles and speed caps.

It’s about producing the tools that emphasize players’ strengths.

The bat doesn’t make the player, but a good bat can make a good player better. If a power hitter finds a bat with the right balance, he’ll get more pop behind his hits and improve his velocity and distance. Same with a contact hitter — find the right bat to get your stick around the ball, and you’ll have better contact, better power and better hit placement.

That’s why Easton’s 2013 Power Brigade is among the best in the game. Their engineers perfected the art of tailoring bats to hitting styles, allowing players to personalize their power.

The 2013 Power Brigade works like this

Speed Series bats are designed for batters that hit for contact.

The center of mass in the bat is balanced closer to the handle, giving each baseball bat in the series an ultra-light swing weight. That allows hitters to get the most speed possible behind their bats, translating into more power.

The XL Series is built for hitters that can already get plenty of speed behind the ball and could benefit by having a larger barrel.

The barrels in the XL Series are expanded, giving hitters a larger sweet spot and more mass behind the ball. That translates into more power and better contact with every swing.

The details

Once you know which series is best for you, it’s time to choose the bat with the right construction. There’s two-piece composites, hybrids and one-piece alloy bats. If you’re not sure which to choose, we produced an easy guide looking at the pros and cons of each construction.

Each bat is also designed with Easton’s Performance Diamond Grip.

Get one at Baseball Express.

Related: Shop our entire selection of Easton baseball gear.

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