You've probably never heard of Miami Marlins prospect Dalton Wheat. For good reason, too. He's a 23-year-old hitting .239/.357/.338 in the South Atlantic League, where the average player is roughly 18 months younger.
Yet there is something about Wheat worth knowing: he uses leather gloves when he's hitting. Here's the story, per the News & Record (hat tip Cut4):
"I loaned my buddy my pair of batting gloves," Wheat says, "and the next day we were in separate hitting groups and I didn't have any. I got a big blister on my hand, and I wasn't just going to go bare-handed."
Wheat's pickup truck was parked nearby, and he rummaged around in the cab and found a pair of work gloves.
Wheat went out and had a good game and -- because baseball players are a superstitious lot -- has continued wearing the work gloves since. He's probably not going to start a new craze, but hey, whatever works, right?
And who knows, if Wheat does keep hitting, he'll probably have more teammates asking to borrow his new set of gloves.
