1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ball catching apparatus, more particularly to a ball catching apparatus used in baseball and the like and comprising a main body in which a back-of-hand-side inner skin and a palm-side inner skin are respectively securely fitted to a back-of-hand-side outer skin and a palm-side outer skin, wherein a hand can be inserted into between the back-of-hand-side inner skin and the palm-side inner skin.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a ball catching apparatus such as a baseball glove, a recess resulting from a repeated ball-catching action (ball-catching part; hereinafter, may be referred to as “pocket”) is generally formed on a palm side thereof, and the glove itself thereby conforms to a user's hand, which helps to assure the reliable ball-catching action.
A combination of an outer skin and an inner skin sewed on a rear side of the outer skin constitutes a back-of-hand side and the palm side of the glove, and an air layer is formed between the outer skin and the inner skin. When the ball-catching action is repeated, a part of the outer skin is particularly stretched, which forms the pocket.
As an example of the glove thus constituted, an invention wherein the pocket is formed in a substantially central part on the palm side was proposed (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-107342).
However, the glove undergoes a larger deformation as the palm part of the glove is stretched by the formation of the pocket. Therefore, the invention whose main improvement is to form the pocket in the substantially central part on the palm side leads to a new problem that is durability of the glove is lessened.
In order to overcome the disadvantage, a glove reinforced in such a manner that leather is bonded to an entire surface of a part where the pocket is formed with an adhesive agent so as to thicken the part was manufactured and launched into the market. In the case of the glove thus constituted, a deformation resistance of the glove itself is increased (so-called increased rigidity). As a result, it is made difficult to bend and stretch fingers when the ball is caught with the thumb and the other fingers, and the ball-catching action becomes awkward. Such a glove cannot suitably conform to the user's hand and makes it difficult to form the pocket.