One day this month, Jake McCarthy, an outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks, slid open a large drawer inside his locker and attempted a quick accounting of its contents. Inside, piled haphazardly on top of one another, were several boxes of Franklin batting gloves.
“I get eight boxes of batting gloves” to start the season, McCarthy said, and each contains six pairs of gloves. That’s 48 sets of gloves for a campaign that lasts roughly 27 weeks. What remains in that drawer represents the final third of his supply, and by the end of this season, they’ll most likely all be gone.