Until it is ready, the old one must remain in use. The Mets just hope it will not cause any major problems, like passed balls at critical points in the game.

Image It is the responsibility of knuckeballers like R.A. Dickey to supply special mitts to their catchers. Credit... Tony Dejak/Associated Press

“It would be nice if the new one was ready,” Barajas said. “It’s getting there, but it needs another week or so.”

A knuckleball glove is a species that lies somewhere between a traditional catcher’s mitt and a thinner, more pliable first baseman’s glove. Its surface area is larger than an ordinary catcher’s glove so it can catch the unpredictable knuckleballs. The glove also weighs less, enabling the catcher to move his arm and hand quicker to snare the ball as it darts to and fro, but making it less able to hold up to the wear.

“It makes a substantial difference,” said Dickey, who has gone 5-0 with a 2.82 earned run average since being called up from Class AAA Buffalo last month. “The late-moving balls that would ordinarily bounce off the rim of a regular catcher’s mitt get sucked into the glove.”

Traditionally, because the glove is used only for a knuckleball pitcher, it is his responsibility to provide, maintain and distribute the glove to his catchers. Dickey has had the old, black Rawlings glove with his name stitched on it since spring training 2009, when he was with the Minnesota Twins.

“I feel a little dorky, like a field-goal kicker carrying around a tee,” Dickey said.

Despite its meritorious service, neither Dickey, Barajas nor Blanco has any sentimental attachment to the glove. It was after a game in Baltimore on June 11, when several knuckleballs bent back its outer edges, escaped Barajas’s grasp and rolled to the backstop (Barajas was charged with two passed balls) that it became obvious the old mitt was no longer reliable enough to use.

This was no idle concern. When a pitch escapes the control of a catcher, it could mean a run and a run could be the difference in a game.