In 2010 I lost 2 weeks of season and 2 starts due to a dime-sized blister. It was a very humid day, and I had been using a lot of rosin. If you’re not a rosin user, it tends to make your hands very tacky after a handful of innings. The moisture plus increased grip left me with lots of friction on much-softened fingertips.

In the 6th or 7th inning I got in a bases loaded jam, at the height of which the entire tip of my middle finger tore off. I still regret that I don’t have a picture of it, because it was almost my entire fingerpad and quite gross. I threw my last 6 pitches of the inning without an outer layer of skin.

At the end of 2011 I felt the blister coming back, and it really made me nervous…maybe I just have bad skin. So, being a pseudo rock climbing fanatic, I looked into a way to harden my fingertips. I stumbled upon a creme called Antihydral, which many climbers swear by to help harden their hands and fingertips. It’s supposed to stop skin from sweating, dry it out and cause calluses. I bought some.

The old solution in baseball to blistering, soft hands is to urinate on them – made popular by Moises Alou (and the alleged orgin of “the pound” – players didn’t want to shake his hand). However, urine contains urea, which actually breaks down dead skin; synthetic urea it’s a common additive in skin cremes. Don’t pee on your hands if you want them harder. Softer, yellowed and smelly? Sure.

The following picture is of the tube itself and the application – a thin layer allowed to dry and remain on the fingers for a few hours. I dab it on before I go to sleep and it’s usually there to greet me in the morning.

skin hardener

So I’ve been using the stuff for about a week now, and it really truly does what it’s supposed to – kill skin. The following is a picture of me immediately out of the shower. Notice the difference between my throwing fingers and the rest of my hand. It’s pretty obvious by the dead skin which ones are getting the Antihydral treatment.

The post-shower picture is pretty valuable because it’s hard to show a callus via photo. I have huge ones where my palms meet my fingers, yet you’d never know by the photo.

The Verdict:

My fingers are pretty plastic-y and have a nice layer of callus. I feel pretty confident that if I continue to use Antihydral, it will keep my skin where I need it – tough, not soft. If it gets too dry, they say to apply “lotion with fat” to alleviate the dryness, and applying the stuff to skin creases is a big No-No; creases are designed to flex and will crack and bleed if dried out.

I found Antihydral here. It cost me $30 with shipping, which is expensive but I consider my blister problem a high priority to solve. The tube will likely last me at least two seasons. If you have a tough time with skin tears, it may be worth a try.