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The story of the cleat


Parr8hed

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Emmy has to wear cleats when on dirt.  She wears turfs when on turf (duh).  With her toe drag while she pitches she wears the toes out quickly.  She also grinds down the actual plastic cleat when she drags.  Depending on the field type she can go through a pair of cleats in 2-3 tourneys.  This makes me oddly happy.  Sure, it's hard financially but it's a drop in the bucket compared to  bats, hotel rooms, traveling costs, etc.  It's somewhat pleasing that she is so hard on gear.  I don't know why.

She is stepping up to 14  U which means we can now use metal cleats.  We got her a really nice pair of metal cleats.  Pitcher's toe so it should not break down as much.  And she can't wear down the metal spikes like she does the plastics.  She had one sole pair left of the plastics.  (we would buy them 3 at a time when they were on sale).  

Then we got into a very prestigious tourney in Cleveland.  We are stepping back to 12u to play this one since the talent is so good.  Which means that she has to wear molded plastic cleats again.  I am going to try to fix up the last pair of cleats to get her through the tourney and us not to have to buy one more pair for just one single tourney.   (we may still have to buy a pair while we are up there if this doesn't work).  

I will provide photographic evidence of the journey of this cleat.

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Ever consider a toe guard?
https://ebasesloaded.com/tuff-toe-molded-pitching-toe-93405.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1qr9qvGB6wIVWx-tBh05tgVEEAQYAyABEgKtkvD_BwE

My son used to blow through cleats a lot too. Through most of HS he plaid Right Field and pitched.  As he didn’t like wearing the heavier cleats with the built up toe in the outfield he’d bring two cleats to games.  But coach would sometimes have him start in right and then pull him in to pitch in relief... Crap there goes those cleats.

It was much better towards the end of his playing days when he was just a pitcher but he’d still go through at least 2 sets of cleats a year from toe drag.

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6 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

How about you train her with BOTH arms?  That way, the other shoe will get worn and essentially double your lifespan????  Man, that would mess with batters BIG TIME!

I can’t recall his name but there is/was a major league player who can pitch with either arm.  He had an ambidextrous glove and would have to indicate before each batter which arm he was pitching with but I bet his cleats held up!

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Just now, ChrisL said:

I can’t recall his name but there is/was a major league player who can pitch with either arm.  He had an ambidextrous glove and would have to indicate before each batter which arm he was pitching with but I bet his cleats held up!

EXACTLY!  Talk about versatile! And can double the pitch count as well!

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39 minutes ago, ChrisL said:

Ever consider a toe guard?
https://ebasesloaded.com/tuff-toe-molded-pitching-toe-93405.html?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI1qr9qvGB6wIVWx-tBh05tgVEEAQYAyABEgKtkvD_BwE

My son used to blow through cleats a lot too. Through most of HS he plaid Right Field and pitched.  As he didn’t like wearing the heavier cleats with the built up toe in the outfield he’d bring two cleats to games.  But coach would sometimes have him start in right and then pull him in to pitch in relief... Crap there goes those cleats.

It was much better towards the end of his playing days when he was just a pitcher but he’d still go through at least 2 sets of cleats a year from toe drag.

We have some liquid stuff that i put on some of them.  Her new pair has one.  But the problem is that she used to not drag on the part where a toe guard would help.  she wore down the actual cleat.  

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1 hour ago, Parr8hed said:

We have some liquid stuff that i put on some of them.  Her new pair has one.  But the problem is that she used to not drag on the part where a toe guard would help.  she wore down the actual cleat.  

Yeah hunt the sales I guess... Fortunately for us my son had his growth spurt in 8th grade and his shoe size didn’t change all through competitive baseball.  

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So an update on the cleat.  Sadly, it did not make it.  The glue held ok but I was worried about it's sustainability.   I got a toe guard to put over it but it did not fit right and didn't glue up right.  I had to have the cleat put down.  

Luckily she found a pair in her closet that had not been used much at all.  She didn't wear them much because they are a little stiffer than her normal brand.  But she said they will work for one tourney.  

So everyone is happy now.  

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2 minutes ago, Parr8hed said:

So an update on the cleat.  Sadly, it did not make it.  The glue held ok but I was worried about it's sustainability.   I got a toe guard to put over it but it did not fit right and didn't glue up right.  I had to have the cleat put down.  

Luckily she found a pair in her closet that had not been used much at all.  She didn't wear them much because they are a little stiffer than her normal brand.  But she said they will work for one tourney.  

So everyone is happy now.  

I am not happy.  

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