Care to catch a Bob Feller fastball?

• Position: WHAT'S NEW? - Baseball gloves, Hoboken Collection from Akadema Inc.

We've made a number of trips to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and believe us when we say that the ooohs and ahhs from visitors are not the result of seeing the actual Hall (with its mounted plaques of the game's all-time greats), rather from viewing the equipment section where the old-style gloves are on display. Fathers and grandfathers--even their heads shaking in disbelief--point out to their charges that these pieces of leather (some barely covering a man's hand) were used to play major league baseball. No wonder they had to use two hands way back when. But even two hands doesn't explain how the catchers for, say, the Washington Senators or Cleveland Indians could handle the blazing fastballs of Walter (The Big Train) Johnson or Bob (Rapid Robert) Feller.

Now, if you wish to use one of these one-of-a-kind mitts, or just want to send Dad or Grandpa down memory lane this Father's Day, you're in luck, thanks to the Hoboken Collection from Akadema Inc., Garfield, N.J., the baseball and softball equipment company for professional, college, high school, and serious youth players. (Its infield gloves were featured in last summer's remake of "The Bad News Bears" starring Billy Bob Thornton.)

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