Almost every major league baseball player wears batting gloves nowadays.

And then there’s Jorge Posada.

The Yankees veteran never

wears gloves.

“I just like the way it feels without them,’’ he says. “I tried ’em when I was younger. I never got used to them.’’

But not using gloves can mean calluses, blisters, and peeling. So Posada followed the advice of longtime outfielder Moises Alou. He urinated on his hands to make them tougher.

“The big joke was you didn’t want to shake Jorge Posada’s hand during spring training,’’ says Globe writer Peter Abraham, who used to cover the Yankees.

Posada sheepishly acknowledges those days are over.

“My wife found out about it and made me stop,’’ he says with a laugh. “Now when my hands get cracked, I use what the trainer gives me.’’

The Orioles’ Vladimir Guerrero is another star player who prefers the barehanded approach.

“I just don’t like the way they feel,’’ he says. “I use just a little tape on my fingers.’’

Guerrero also admits to urinating on his hands. And at least one Red Sox pitcher used to do the same thing.

“I used to pee on my hands, because when my father pitched in Cuba, he did that,’’ says the great Luis Tiant. “He said it really toughened up his hands.’’

Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson says, “Gloves are for girls,’’ and players wear them only for endorsement deals.

“Good hitters didn’t need gloves,’’ says Jackson. “[Willie] Mays and those guys didn’t need gloves. The Hammer [Hank Aaron], Billy Williams, Ted Williams, the Babe. You either can hit or you can’t.’’

Reminded that he wore a single batting glove, Mr. October backtracked.

“I wore a glove because my girlfriend told me my hands were ugly,’’ he explained. “She said, ‘Did you walk on your hands?’ So I started wearing a glove.’’

The Hawk sets a trend The history of the batting glove in baseball is sketchy before the mid-1960s.

Philadelphia’s Hughie Jennings may have worn a glove in 1901 and Lefty O’Doul of the Dodgers wore a “regular street glove’’ because of an injury in 1932, according to the book “Game of Inches’’ by Peter Morris.

Bobby Thomson of the Giants wore golf gloves in spring training in 1949. Ted Williams may have donned a golf glove in batting practice to ward off blisters after he returned from Korea.

Mickey Mantle wore a single white golf glove in a 1960 “Home Run Derby’’ television contest against Ernie Banks. When questioned about it on the show, he grinned and said it helped his grip.