Catcher's mitt

Claim 1

A baseball catcher's mitt having front and back walls secured at the periphery of the mitt to form a mitt body, a back panel member secured to the back wall of the mitt for substantially covering the back of the hand and forming, in conjunction with the back wall of the mitt, finger stall means for receiving the fingers of the hand and a thumb stall for receiving the thumb of the hand, said back panel member and body of the mitt having unconnected lower edge margins defining a hand opening at the bottom of the mitt through which the hand may be inserted up into the mitt between the back panel member and the back wall of the glove, a first slot in the back panel member extending upwardly from the lower edge margin thereof toward said finger stall means, a second slot in the back panel member spaced laterally from the first slot in the direction toward the thumb side of the mitt and extending upwardly from the lower edge margin of the back panel member, said first and second slots being expansible in width to enlarge the size of the hand opening and contractible in width to reduce the size of the hand opening, first quick-operating means adapted for adjusting the width of the first slot to a selected width when the hand is in the mitt and for releasably maintaining the first slot at said selected width, and second quick-operating metals adapted for adjusting the width of the second slot to a selected width when the hand is in the mitt and for releasably maintaining the second slot at said selected width, said first and second slots and respective quick-operating means being independently operable with respect to one another to adjust the size of the hand opening.