Baseball
Buy and sell baseball gear in Costa Rica.
The balls pitched in the Major Leagues are stitched by hand in Turrialba, but the game itself took root on the Caribbean side: Limón played the country’s first recorded match, and the banana-farm fields around Guápiles and Sarapiquí kept it going. What players here pass on is the kit: leather gloves cut for each position, alloy, composite and wood bats, catcher’s sets and batting helmets, plus the bigger gloves and balls of softball. New and pre-owned gear both have a place, and the glove a teenager has outgrown is often exactly what a younger player in the youth leagues needs next.
Gloves are cut for the position:
and the wrong one makes every play harder. An infield glove is small with a shallow pocket, so the ball comes out quickly for the throw; an outfield glove is longer and deeper, for catching on the run. First base uses a mitt without separate fingers, and the catcher a round, heavily padded mitt built to take pitch after pitch. Softball gloves are bigger again to suit the bigger ball, so a baseball glove handed down to a softball player feels cramped. Every glove is labelled by throwing hand: a right-handed thrower wears it on the left, and left-handed gloves are the harder ones to find. Stiff, heavy leather lasts for years but has to be broken in; the soft gloves made for children close from the first day and wear out sooner.
Choosing a bat starts with the stamp on the barrel:
leagues accept bats by certification, not by brand. BBCOR is the stamp on the heavier adult alloy and composite bats made for the high school and college game in the United States. USSSA and USA Baseball stamps mark youth bats, lighter for their length. Professionals swing wood, maple, ash or birch, and so does plenty of adult amateur play. Alloy hits well from the first swing, while composite has a bigger sweet spot but needs breaking in and cracks when it fails. Softball bats split into fastpitch and slowpitch and do not belong in a baseball game. Ask the coach which stamp the league takes before paying for a bat. Batting tees, nets and weighted balls for the yard sit with the training kit in exercise equipment.
The catcher’s set and the batting helmet:
are sized to the player’s build rather than the age on the box. A catcher needs a mask or a hockey-style helmet, a chest protector and leg guards; the guards should reach from the knee over the top of the foot. A batting helmet should sit firm without sliding over the eyes. Cleats come moulded or with metal spikes. Younger players start on moulded studs, often the same football boots they already own, and metal spikes are for older players on a well-kept dirt infield.
A broken-in glove is worth more, not less:
the hours of catching shaped the pocket and saved the next owner the work. What matters is the leather and the laces: dry, cracked leather in the palm or a lace snapped at the fingertips can be repaired, but it should show in the price, and a pocket gone flat and floppy will not hold a hard throw. Premium gloves are the ones most copied: a genuine one has deep, clean stamping on the heel and thumb and real leather lacing all the way round, while a copy feels thin and smells of plastic. With bats, sight along the barrel in good light for dents on alloy and hairline cracks on composite, then hold the bat by the handle and shake it beside your ear: a rattle means something inside has broken or the end cap is loose. Be wary of a composite bat with a re-glued end cap or a strangely hollow ring, signs it may have been shaved to hit harder, which no league allows.
Your old glove, photographed from the palm side:
shows the pocket, laces and wear in one picture; add the back with its stamping. State the throwing hand, the size printed on the heel, the position it was made for and whether it is a baseball or a softball glove. For a bat, give the length, the weight, the material and the stamp, and photograph the stamp, the end cap and the full barrel. A catcher’s set goes faster complete, with the height of the player who wore it. Someone coming over from Guápiles to see a bat will want to hold it, shake it by the ear and take a few swings, so meet somewhere with room to swing it.