Hey guys.
John Madden from YouGoProBaseball.com and I've got Dennie, the inventor of the Team
Defender here and um, he's got a great product.
It's a thumb protecting device, glove, that protects the catcher from the hyperextension
that they can receive when they are catching the baseball.
Dennie, what do you got, what, why did you come up with this product?
Well, when I was a young guy I've always was a catcher since I can remember and so I had
a situation where I was catching one time and a foul tip ball had come off the bat,
when I was just nine years old and the ball hit me weird.
There it was, my thumb swelled up and hurt and couldn't bat.
We had to tape my thumb up and try to go bat, I couldn't bat because I had to untape it
and then we had to tape it back up, so this is back in the 80's here.
We went down to a guys place and we figured out how to, a way to make up something and
it was crazy looking, but over the years we fine tuned it and just made it look a lot
better and make it work better and so, anyway, since then it's evolved.
I had some that had made out of thermal plastic type material and when I'd make those, I'd
throw it in the hot car, the thing would lose shape.
I'd try to go to practice and pull it out and couldn't even get it on my hand.
So, there I had to make another one.
And so I was like well I need to make this thing out of a different type of material.
So, let's make it out of a PVC type material that will last, it'll go through a lot of
beatings and so I was like, well, we'll make that, let's just incorporate it into a glove
therefore you have to use a glove anyway to slide it on the top of your hand, let's put
it inside of a glove, use a good material to go on your hand and so we did that and
added some extra leather to the areas that take a pounding and over the years it's, like
today's time, before I, if I would've had something like this back in the day it would
have been great.
Because this finger, like my fingers are so numb now, over the years, but anyways.
Yeh, I love the extra padding on the two fingers, the pointer and the middle finger there, and
also on the palm, right there, because I know always when I'm catching, you know, I get
stung up right there, that's where I, you know that's where a lot of it stings, if I'm
not jamming that thumb up.
So that's another thing I love about the Team Defender.
What separates the Team Defender from the other thumb guards that are out there?
The difference between my guard and a lot of them out there is, it's ready, already
molded, shelf ready, you can buy it, put it on your hand, and go.
If um there's issues with it being a little bit too big for your hand, there's a neoprene
piece here that can be slid on to your thumb like so and then you can actually put the
glove on with it, where it makes it fit tighter.
Nice, so it kind of like shims it in there?
Right, right.
Nice, very nice.
And can, can you alter this, like if you wanted to lower it or something?
Right.
Actually, you can um, you can work it out, the plastic piece that's in it, you can work
it out, and it's actually got a good cloth inside where it won't rub your hand raw or
anything so.
You can actually pull it out, trim it.
So if it comes down to your finger too high you can trim it down a little bit and so it
will allow you to move better.
Yeh, I mean, I've got one and I didn't have to alter it at all.
I just had the glove, put it on, and it was perfect right out of the box to go and a lot
of my catchers also were the same way, they just, you know, right out of the box it was
good, they didn't have to cut it or shim it or anything.
So, um, you know, that's, that's great.
If you don't order one you're a fool.
There you go.
You know it?
Because it's going to save them.
You know, it's that protective gear.
We're taught like in the maintenance field for instance, a person that works maintenance,
if they don't do preventative maintenance on a motor or change the oil in a car, it's
like this, well if you don't change the oil in a car every three to six, you know, three
to four months, every three thousand miles, four thousand miles like you're supposed to,
what's going to happen to that motor?
It's going to lock up.
Something's going to break.
So, if you're sitting there catching pitches over and over and over again, hundreds of
pitches, you're catching bullpens, you've got to stay down there all day catching, guys
have got to go throw 50 pitch bullpens or 60 pitch bullpens and then you've got to catch
5 or 6 of those guys, what happens when that ball hits the ground funky or whatever hits
your mitt funny?
It's going to happen and so if you don't have it on and if it does happen there you're out
of practice, you're not getting better, you know, you're not helping the team at all,
but if you have this, you're going to save, you're going to actually, you'll actually
save and prevent, just like a cup or anything else that's preventative, heart guards or
what not.
I remember in spring training one year we had to get our hands x-rayed and I remember
the doctor saying the worst thing that you can injure on yourself is your thumbs as a
baseball player.
That's the worst thing that you could injure.
One of the things that made me want to it, to be honest with you.
I have a friend that works for a surgeon and during football season, baseball season, he'll
see 2, 3, 4 a year literally it hurt them so bad that that ligament is actually ripped
tears and they have to go in do surgery on their thumb and they're out for the whole
year maybe not even able to do that position again.
Because they're, it's going to keep happening because it gets weak.
Once it happens once, it's it's always going to happen.
So, anyways, it's a very good, it's preventative maintenance for your body and for your team
too.
So, if you're part of the team and you're very wanted and you're very needed you better
buy one.
That's right.