Rawlings Heart of the Hide Catchers Mitt: a Review [Learn More!]

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Are you interested in using a Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt?

Then you're at the right place. This article shows all HOTH catchers mitts in production and it gives a review of our top pick.

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rawlings heart of the hide catchers mitt review

Rawlings Heart of the Hide Catchers Mitt

If you're reading this, you probably already know a thing or two about Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitts. 

Like how they're some of the most premium mitts in the game today. 

Or how a significant number of big league catchers these days use a Heart of the Hide catchers mitt.

These are things you probably already have at least a passing familiarity with.

This post cuts to the chase and shows you an easy to read inventory of each Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt made today. 

We also dig deep on details of the 33 inch PROCM33T, which we got our hands on recently and reviewed for this article.

Ready? Scroll on….

Review of Our Top HOTH Pick: The PROCM33T

rawlings heart of the hide catchers mitt procm33t

We believe the top Heart of the Hide catchers mitt available today for baseball catchers is the PROCM33T

Recently we spent some time working with a brand new PROCM33T and were impressed.

So we wanted to share our observations and the highlights of the mitt.

rawlings heart of the hide catchers mitt procm33t

Leather

Out of the box it has a strong leather smell. Kind of like walking into an equipment room on the day that the new, fresh baseball gear is delivered. It was great.

The traditional tan-colored steer leather shell immediately jumps out. It gives off a cool, vintage vibe.

The leather itself is cut from high-quality steer hide. 

rawlings HOTH catchers mitt

Design

Red Rawlings logos are all over this mitt, but it looks great contrasted with the tan leather. 

There is the Rawlings name in cursive stitching over the thumb, the red Rawlings R logo over the hand, and the traditional Rawlings square logo patch over the pinkie stall.

Also in that same area is an MLB logo patch and red stitching that says "THE GOLD GLOVE CO."

Comfort

Ok, enough about how it looks. 

How does it feel?

First off, the leather feels firm and high quality, like it would hold up for a long time.

When you put your hand inside, it feels great. Secure yet roomy.

There is a loop on the left side for the pinkie finger and the right side for the thumb. 

catchers mitt pinkie finger
Our picture of the pinkie stall inside the PROCM33T

catchers mitt thumb
We also took a close up of the thumb stall

There's also roomy finger stalls for the third and fourth fingers but none for the index finger since it was built to stay on the outside.

It has extra padding on top of the leather shell for the index finger but you'll notice that the dark brown liner stops on each side of the index finger pad. 

It's wide enough that it's but a problem for me but it might bug you if your index finger tends to move around a lot.

catchers mitt index finger
The liner stops on either side of the index finger pad

Above the hand is a comfy black, microfiber material that wicks up sweat. 

One minor note… In this area is a square tag - like those white tags on the back of a t-shirt - that we recommend cutting off. It’s one of those little things that could get annoying quick.

Pocket

Moving to the pocket, one thing I like is that the PROCM33T has a really good amount of padding. Better than many we've seen, to be honest.

pocket of a catchers mitt
The PROCM33T pocket

It's a high quality catchers mitt and makes a beautiful pop sound when catching the ball. 

Yet it takes some work to get to the point of catching with it, as it needs breaking in.

We'd suggest using some good glove oil and working it with your hands for a bit, then moving on to catch with it.

One other thing to mention is that the PROCM33T feels about average in weight. Meaning, it's not the lightest or the heaviest catchers mitt around. 

The words "Lite Toe" are stamped on the outer edge of the pocket, which is a phrase Rawlings uses to describe the lighter weight of the glove's toe.

While that particular section of the mitt may be light, the entire mitt as mentioned is pretty average in weight.

That, however, doesn't detract from the fact that this is arguably the best Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt currently in existence.

top of the procm33t

Overall it has a lot of great things going for it, from its design and coloring to its leather and fit.

In short, we'd recommend the PROCM33T HOTH to baseball catchers needing a long-term, quality mitt.

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Every Rawlings Heart of the Hide Catchers Mitt in Production

Versions for Baseball Catchers

R2G ContoUR Fit - PRORCM33UC

R2G ContoUR Fit rawlings heart of the hide catchers mitt

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R2G - PRORCM33-23BGS

r2g prorcm33-23bgs

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R2G - PRORCM33TB

ProRCM33TB Rawlings Heart of the Hide Catchers Mitt

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Hyper Shell - PROCM41CCF

procm41ccf

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R2G - RPRORCM33C

PRORCM33C

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R2G - RPRORCM33B

RPROCM33B Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt

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ColorSync 7.0 - RPROYM4GB

colorsync catchers mitt

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Speed Shell Yadier Molina - PROYM4BC

speed shell HOTH yadi catchers mitt

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HOTH Gary Sanchez - PROGS24

HOTH gary sanchez catchers mitt

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Version for Fastpitch Softball Catchers

PROCM33FP-24G

rawlings heart of the hide fastpitch catchers mitt

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Little Known Facts About Heart of the Hide Gloves

We're former players, coaches and huge fans of baseball and fastpitch softball here at Catchers Home.

And were also nerds. 

We like doing lots of deep research about interesting things like gloves.

With that in mind, we wanted to share a few facts we found about Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitts, and the HOTH product line in general.

These aren't really widely known facts as far as we can tell. 

So here's our tiny contribution of original research about HOTH. 

  • Rawlings filed the trademark for the phrase "Heart of the Hide" all the way back in 1959 - May 8, 1959, to be exact.
  • The classic Heart of the Hide bull logo, which is still on the pocket of gloves today, has remained basically unchanged from the beginning. There's various Rawlings ads from the early 1960s that show the logo.
  • The "Light Toe" design appears to have been created for Heart of the Hide gloves around 1980. That's when Rawlings filed the trademark for the phrase.
  • Each modern Rawlings Heart of the Hide catchers mitt is manufactured in the Philippines. We have written earlier about the fact that almost every major glove brand makes its gloves outside the US now. Nokona is the one exception. 

 

That's A Wrap!

We hope this article on Heart of the Hide catchers mitts was helpful. 

If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch with us.

Thanks for stopping by.

Scott Perry is the owner and lead author at Catchers Home. He's a former baseball player, a current coach, a husband and a Dad. He remains as passionate about baseball today as he was as a kid.