Apparel – Guard or protector – Hand or arm
Reexamination Certificate
2002-02-01
2003-02-11
Welch, Gary L. (Department: 3765)
Apparel
Guard or protector
Hand or arm
C002S161100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06516470
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball catching tool as used for playing baseball or softball or the like, and particularly to a ball catching tool with outer leather parts on a rear side of a main body of the ball catching tool being formed to cover a back of one's hand while an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one's hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one's hand.
2. Description of the Related Art
A ball catching tool with outer leather parts on a rear side of a main body of the ball catching tool being formed to cover a back of one's hand while an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one's hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one's hand is conventionally known for use as a ball catching tool in playing baseball. When using such a ball catching tool, the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side, which is connected to a main outer leather portion on the finger side, is tightened to one's hand for restricting the ball catching tool from slipping off from one's hand or from a positional shift thereof with respect to the hand when catching a ball for thus enabling easy catching.
However, such a ball catching tool presented the following drawbacks due to the arrangement of tightening the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side, which is connected to the main outer leather portion on the finger side, with respect to one's hand.
That is, when the ball catching tool in a condition in which it is attached to one's hand, the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side that is tightened to the hand hardly allows any positional changes in a longitudinal direction of the hand owing to its tightening force. When one tries to bend each finger when performing catching, tension force preventing deformation of the main outer leather portion in a warping manner will be applied from the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side to the main outer leather portion accompanying catching operations so that the main outer leather portion will be in a restrained condition. The main outer leather portion will thus hardly be deformed in a warping manner so that it would often happen that it was difficult to catch while firmly bending each finger.
One possible measure would be to form only the outer leather portion between the main outer leather portion on the finger side and the outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side on the wrist side by using an elastic material for avoiding tension force that prevents deformation of the main outer leather portion in a warping manner accompanying catching operations through this elastic material and enabling easy deformation of the main outer leather portion in a warping manner. However, such a measure is not appropriate since it leads to another drawback that partial degradation in strength is caused at a portion of the elastic material portion which strength is inferior to that of the outer leather parts.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object thereof to provide a ball catching tool that enables easier catching operations while being of an arrangement in which an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one's hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one's hand.
More particularly, the characteristic arrangement of the ball catching tool according to the present invention is comprised of:
a main body of the ball catching tool with outer leather parts on a rear side being formed to cover a back of one's hand while an outer leather portion on a hand inserting inlet side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one's hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened condition with respect to one's hand, and
a joint outer leather portion that is provided at the main body of the ball catching tool for blocking and jointing the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side and a main outer leather portion on a finger side,
wherein the joint outer leather portion includes a plurality of strip-like outer leather pieces with longitudinal directions of the respective pieces being aligned to extend from the main outer leather portion on the finger side to the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side to be entirely aligned in width directions of the hand and with respective outer leather pieces being fixed at both ends in longitudinal directions of the pieces without being tightly bonded in width directions of the hand.
The following actions and effects may be exhibited through the above arrangement.
[a] One's hand is inserted from the hand inserting inlet into the main body of the ball catching tool, and the outer leather portion on the hand inserting inlet side is tightened and attached to the hand. With this arrangement, it is possible to reliably prevent slipping off of the ball catching tool from the hand or positional shift thereof with respect to the hand when performing catching operations.
[b] When the tool is in a condition in which it is attached to one's hand as in [a] above, the outer leather portion on a hand inserting side that is tightened to one's hand may hardly be changed in position in a longitudinal direction of the hand through its tightening force with respect to the hand. However, according to the arrangement of the present invention, the joint outer leather portion blocking and jointing the outer leather portion on the hand inserting inlet side and a main outer leather portion on a finger side is comprised of a plurality of strip-like outer leather pieces with longitudinal directions of the respective pieces being aligned to extend from the main outer leather portion on the finger side to the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side entirely aligned in width directions of the hand and with respective outer leather pieces being fixed at both ends in longitudinal directions of the pieces without being tightly bonded in width directions of the hand, and restraining force of the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side acting onto the main outer leather portion that tries to deform to warp accompanying the bending of each finger at the time of catching is restricted at intermediate of the strip-like outer leather pieces of the joint outer leather portion. In other words, the main outer leather portion will be substantially separated from the outer leather portion on the hand inserting side which position is hardly changeable accompanying the catching operations so that the main outer portion will be readily bend to a palm side and may be easily deformed in a warping manner.
[c] The above arrangements [a] and [b] enable it to perform catching while firmly bending each finger so as to enclose a ball with inner leather parts corresponding to the palm side of the main body of the ball catching tool.
[d] In the joint outer leather portion comprised of strip-like outer leather pieces, the outer leather pieces are of a strength that approximates that of the remaining outer leather portions, no partial degradations in strength of the outer leather parts will occur at the joint outer leather portion.
Thus, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a ball catching tool that enables easy catching while being of an arrangement in which an outer leather portion on a hand inserting side for receiving and supporting a wrist side of the back of one's hand is arranged that it may be freely tightened or released from a tightened
Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P.
Trion Corporation
Welch Gary L.
LandOfFree
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