Baseball gifts for kids, written for the person who doesn't play

For the person who doesn't play

This hub is written for the aunt, the grandparent and the family friend: you know the kid loves baseball, you do not know what a drop weight is, and you would like to buy something that gets used rather than exchanged. The two guides here sort the site's ranked picks by the only three things a gift buyer needs to know: which gifts need no sizing at all, which need one question to the parents, and which to leave to the parents entirely.

The three rules

Gloves go on the non-throwing hand. A right-handed thrower wears the glove on the left hand, and retailers sell that as “right hand throw.” Ask, because it is the number-one gift return in this category. Bats have league stamps. Little League requires the USA Baseball stamp, travel ball requires USSSA, and 13-year-olds may need BBCOR; a bat with the wrong stamp cannot be used at all. The exception is tee ball, where every tee ball bat carries the USA stamp and the only question is whether the kid is in a tee ball division. For everyone else, leave the bat to the parents and send them the stamp guide. Helmets and batting gloves are sized. A head measurement in inches and a glove size are one text away.

Gifts that need no sizing

A batting tee (a 5-year-old and a 12-year-old use the same one), a bat-bag backpack, a Hit-A-Way tethered ball for the backyard, a bucket of practice balls, and the glove-care kit (oil, mallet, break-in kit) for the kid who just got a stiff new glove. These are the safe gifts, and they are the ones that get used most: a tee is used every day; a second bat is used once the parents have checked the stamp. Best gifts for kids who love baseball sorts ten picks into ages 3–6, 7–10 and 11–13 with a “before you wrap it” note on each.

Gifts with a budget cap

Baseball gifts under $50 takes twelve picks that listed under $50 on the maker's own site when we checked and sorts them into under $15 (stocking stuffers), under $30 (batting gloves, bags) and under $50 (a real glove, a helmet, a tee ball bat). This site runs without a live Amazon price feed, so it does not print Amazon prices; the tiers come from the maker's list price on the date on the page, and the button on each card checks today's Amazon price before you buy.

If she plays softball

The glove and the bat are different (deeper pocket, different stamp), and the helmet has a mask. The safe softball gifts are the same no-sizing ones: a tee, a bag, a bucket of balls. If you want to buy the glove, the softball glove size chart has the one question to ask; what does my daughter need for softball is the page to send the parents. Every pick on both gift pages comes from the site's own rankings, with its specs quoted from the maker; nothing was added to fill a gift slot.

If you only read one page

Read the by-age gift guide and pick from the no-sizing column unless you are willing to send one text to the parents. A tee, a bag or a Hit-A-Way arrives right the first time; a glove or a helmet arrives right if you asked the throwing hand or the head size; a bat arrives right only if the parents chose it. That is the whole method, and it is why every card on the two gift pages carries a “before you wrap it” note instead of a spec sheet.