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WEST BEND – As spring baseball moves into full gear and summer ball is just around the corner, quite a few kids and coaches are taking a second look at their favorite glove.

Shaving cream, saddle soap, linseed oil are just a few of the secrets to rehabbing or breaking in a baseball glove.

In New Holstein, baseball coach Chad Dowland said he’s heard of baking a glove in an oven, and running it over with a car. But his best advice is to “get off the couch and use it!”

A COACH’S STORY…

Larry Villard, head coach at Bruce High School said he has re-laced gloves for over 30 years. 

“I started doing it as a player in my 20's when I would blow the pocket out of my catcher’s mitt a few times a season. 

I bought my own glove lacing tool, leather lacing, a pliers and scissors.  Then when I started coaching I began re-lacing my player’s gloves.  I always had my tool kit with me in my coaching bag. 

Word got out and I started re-lacing girls softball gloves in the schools I coached. 

One summer I re-laced four catcher's mitts for Reedsburg High School. 

I took the mitts with me on vacation and re-laced them while riding in the car or sitting around on a rainy day.

I still re-lace any player’s gloves in our school; last week I re-laced a girls softball glove. 

Most of the time it is the lacing in the pocket and or fingers that breaks, mostly due to poor quality leather, but sometimes just from dry rot and poor care. 

I now buy all my lacing at shoe repair shops because the quality of the lacing is much better and lasts much longer in the gloves.

Most re-lacing jobs take me about 15-20 minutes depending on how much I need to replace.  I usually like to replace the entire pocket or finger section so that it all looks the same and has good leather. 

If it happens in a game I will just repair the broken area so it can be used right away in a minute or two.  I have never charged a player to fix their glove. 

I did charge Reedsburg High School for those catcher's mitts but if parents or kids tell me how much they owe I just tell them if they are ever in a shoe repair shop that they can just pick up some lacing if they wish, and sometimes they do!

Years ago I sent my glove to California to the Gloveman! 

I read an article about him in the Collegiate Baseball paper. I bought that glove my junior year of high school and by the end of college it was really tore up, and very floppy. 

I read the article about the Gloveman and thought I would try it with my old glove. 

I don't remember how long my glove was gone, but it seems like a month. When it came back I had to break it in again just like a new glove! It was awesome, it was completely re-laced with very stiff and high quality leather and something was injected into the fingers and pocket area to make it very stiff again.  I still have the glove today!

I break in new gloves by conditioning them first with good glove conditioner or glove oil and putting a ball in the pocket and tying string, belt or strap around it to form the pocket correctly.

Placing it under a bed, chair or anything that will hold it tightly in place also works.

I have put them in a warm oven for awhile to soften them up and let the glove oil soak in better, it depends on how stiff the glove is. 

Typically, I find Rawlings gloves the stiffest and hardest to break in due to the type of leather.  Mizuno gloves are about the easiest, they have very soft leather.

I now also use the pitching machine to break gloves in faster.  Just turn the machine up as fast as you can catch it and catch 50-100 balls for a few days and the glove is ready to go. 

I have always heard that at the major league level they have a special machine that breaks gloves in fast?  However I have never asked or observed it."

Larry Villiard - Bruce High School

HAVE YOU HEARD OF THE GLOVE HAMMER

Or there’s the famous Glove Hammer for a mere $27.99. "The 14 inch wooden mallet is hand crafted and perfectly balanced to help break in new baseball gloves with minimal strain.

The hammer looks simple.

It is balanced... so you can use it more without fatigue. The size of the ball, the length of the "lever" and the lanyard for that matter. And the entire product is hand-made!"

A SIMPLE THEORY ON A GLOVE IN THE RAIN…

Joe Waite, assistant baseball coach at Cumberland High School, relayed this story.

Mike Dee, head coach at University of Illinois at Chicago said to soak a baseball glove in a bucket of water. A coach asked him if it would hurt the glove. Dee said, "It used to be a cow."

 
If you have a glove rehab story to share email judy@prepsonthenet.com. Please note your affiliate school and be aware your comments may be posted in the future.