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Indy league debuts team-specific catcher's gear

New Britain Bees / Twitter

An independent baseball league is hoping an eye-popping equipment change will catch the attention of the baseball world.

The Atlantic League has unveiled customized catcher's equipment featuring special designs for each of the league's eight teams. During the 2016 season, all catchers will wear the gear, which was created with the help of equipment company Rawlings and a graphic design company.

"We set out to create a completely new way to view catchers and their equipment," Atlantic League president Rick White said. "With the support of Rawlings and the assistance of Skye Design Studios, we believe we have re-defined catchers' gear and that our innovative decoration will influence on-field designs for years to come."

Both White and the league's partners want this project to be the start of something bigger. They're eyeing a possible partnership with MLB to bring team-centric catcher's gear to the big leagues. In an interview with Paul Lukas of ESPN and UniWatch.com, White said he's already pitched the idea to both the league and its players' association.

"If MLB decides to leverage this for licensing purposes, we would hope that that we could have a division of receipts between MLB, the players' association, and then the Atlantic League and Rawlings, because we brought the idea to them," White said.

Customized catcher's masks briefly became the rage when the hockey-style cage was introduced in the mid-1990s. MLB's equipment licencing agreement, however, now forces catchers to wear only generic single-color masks. Eleven-year veteran John Buck, who retired in 2014, was the last backstop allowed to use a custom design thanks to a grandfather clause.

With baseball entering a new era featuring flashy young stars who want to make the game fun again, this may be the perfect time to introduce snazzy new equipment.

"I think all gear is headed down the road of personalization and customization," Rawlings executive vice president J. Michael Thompson told Lukas. "We've seen the explosion with ball gloves, and now it's happening with bats. Everyone wants their own personal touch, everyone wants a hand in the creative process, and MLB seems more open to new things these days with the leadership of the new commissioner."

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