Breaking in a "gamer"

[JC]

After getting sick of playing softball, I started playing for an over-35 baseball team this year.

Wood bats, metal spikes, plenty of fun!

My softball gloves are all too big, so I recently bought a new Rawlings HOH infield glove, but it is taking a long time to break-in.

I have used Glovoleum on the palm area only, and have played catch many times. The glove is still really stiff.

I was watching the College World Series last weekend, and they had a segment showing the "bucket of water/dry out/ shaving cream" break in method.

What do you guys think of this method?

What is the best way to accelerate glove break-in without killing the long term durability of a high quality glove??

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[BretMan]

I personally don't like the water soaking method for several reasons.

Getting a glove saturated wet can drive the natural oils from the leather. It's the same process you see when you soak in a bath tub and your fingers get wrinkly! Luckily, since you're still alive, your body will replensih the lost oils from your skin. But oils from your glove will not be replenished, though conditioning the glove can help somewhat.

The other thing I don't like about soaking is that the interior and padding of the glove will tend not to dry as fast as the outer shell. This leaves the inner workings of the glove prone to mold and mildew.

Shaving cream probably isn't the best break-in conditioner either. The supposed advantages of shaving cream are ease of use- I'll give you that one- and that it contains lanolin.

Lanolin is perhaps the single best leather conditioning agent. But, if you take the time to read the label of the shaving cream can, you'll find that precious few actually contain lanolin. The only one I'm aware of is the foamy "Beard Buster" variety from Barbosol.

Besides that, shaving creams will contain harsh soaps, emulsifiers, zinc stearate and a host of other chemicals that I can't even pronounce!

I'm sure that the "soaking and shaving cream" method will soften the leather, but I think the long-term damage to your glove is a bad trade-off.

One product I love for breaking-in gloves is "Doctor Glove" from Franklin. You can find it at many sporting goods stores and places like Wal-Mart. It has the exact same foamy consistency as shaving cream, along with the ease of use, but contains none of the harsh chemicals. It also contains lanolin- good stuff for leather!- and neats foot oil.

When breaking-in a glove, I concentrate my efforts in the natural hinge areas. If the glove is really stiff, I bend a crease in the hinges and work it by hand a bit. I also use a bit more of the leather conditioner in those spots.

The other thing to do with your glove is use it, use it, use it...and then use it some more! Play catch as often as you can. You might even consider catching a few rounds of balls in a batting cage to get things really loosened up.

The attached website link offers some of the best glove break-in advice on the net. Check it out!

http://www.sandalady.com/

[vintagebrett]

I used shaving cream to break in one of my HOH during my middle school/high school years. It worked great in breaking it in but the glove doesn't look too great now, especially compared to my A2000 which was broken in by playing hours of catch. I still think catch is the best method!

[JC]

When you apply the "Doctor Glove" do you treat the entire glove, or just the palm area?

Thanks

[BretMan]

I usually give the entire glove a light coating and pay a little more attention to the palm and hinges.

I also try to avoid excess heat when breaking in a glove. One thing I've never tried is the stuff that you apply then put your glove in the oven. I suppose that a few minutes might not hurt, but I'm afraid to take the chance.

What I have done that seems to work well is leave the glove in a hot car for a few hours on a typical summer day, then apply the leather conditioner while the glove is still warm. The heat gets the glove warm and opens up the pores in the leather, but not hot enough to do any real damage.

Then, after applying the conditioner, I'll put the glove back in the car for a while. This seems to really allow the conditioner to absorb a lot better.

Doctor Glove is cheap at about $2-$3 a can. A couple years ago my local Wal-Mart was clearing out their baseball equipment at the end of the summer and had cans on sale for a buck, so i bought about a dozen cans!

While I really like this product for glove break-in, I do not hesitate to use it on older gloves I'm restoring for my collection. I've had no bad experiences with it. It is easy to apply, almost impossible to use too much and it doesn't weigh down the glove like most oils do. Plus it has lanolin!

By the way, congatulations on getting back into adult baseball. I played in an MSBL league in recent years and had to go through finding a smaller glove than my old softball glove, too. Had to drop out of the league a couple years ago due to time constraints with coaching and umpiring and really miss it. My schedule only allows me to play one night a week now- I umpire another three or four days each week. The one team I'm playing on is a men's fastpitch softball team, so I had to dig out my old softball gloves again!

[crackofthebat]

I think the best conditioner for any glove, new or old, is hydrous lanolin. You can purchase it at any drug store - usually in one pound tubs. The cost is $9 to $12 dollars. Just put a little on your fingers and rub into the leather. A little goes a long way! When I coached little league I use to take 35 mm film cannisters and give each of my players a supply of lanolin to keep their gloves in good condition. A little lanolin on the laces will protect the laces if they become damp or wet.

Playing catch is still the best way to break in a glove, but I also took an old wooden croquette ball and fastened a wooden handle to it and use it to pound the pocket.

[dwags4him]

Hydrous lanolin does work well. I just got another pound from Osco for about $16. Use it sparingly, since it will spread well, especially if applied after vaseline. Expect a slight "barn" smell, since lanolin is derived from sheep. The smell fades within days, and does give the leather a nice sheen

[502 to Right]

JC - I may be late with an answer by looking at the date of your original post but I'll give my two cents worth.

First, what model HOH do you have? I find (and I'm sure most others agree) that the mid-90's and prior HOH's can be some of the toughest gloves to break in. The later 90's and 2000's HOH's can be anywhere from fairly stiff to game ready on day 1. I read an article by the owner of Horween leather (who supplies leather to Rawlings for the Heart of the Hides) that the new glove are softer due to the younger and younger cattle going to slaughter.

My preferred breaking in method for most gloves (especially if the glove has an undesirable shape for my hand or it doesn't close the way I'd like it to) is to first fill the bathtub with hot water. Then I plunge the glove fully into the water for exactly one second. Once the glove comes out I dry it off as much as I can with a towel. Next I work the leather in little with my hand in the glove to see how I want the glove to lay when broken in. Once I've done that I put a ball square in the pocket (exactly where I'd want to catch every ball) and tie an old necktie around the glove to secure everything in place. I don't wrap the glove too tight--just enough to get the glove exactly how I'd like it to lay when it's closed. Then I put the glove on the floor with two fans blowing on high on the glove (one from each direction). I dry the glove for at least 24 hours this way. If you have a tan glove you might end up with a couple of water stains on the leather when it drys. If that happens, I rewet that area of the glove and let it dry. I repeat as necessary until any stains are "smoothed" out.

The key to dunking (and you can skip this step if you already like the shape of the glove and how the glove closes) is to do it for only one second. If you leave it in the water for much longer, the felt/wool in the fingers and heel will water log and make it that much harder to dry out properly.

You may need to take the ball out after a couple of hours under the fans so the leather underneath will dry as well. After just a couple of hours of drying the leather will hold the shape of the ball even if it's not there--so that's not a problem.

Once the glove totally drys out (and you can't cut corners drying out the glove or it might mold), I work the leather with my fingers to loosen things up (the water dunking and drying process will likely leave the glove insanely stiff). Once I've loosened things up a little, I will add the glove oil/conditioner. I'm sure others here have their favorites and I'm no exception. I skip the shaving cream--it's nothing but soap. If I have a tan glove and I'm concerned that the conditioner will make the leather too dark, I'll usually start with Lexol (a leather conditioner you should be able to find at most auto supply stores). You don't need to completely slather your glove in conditioner. If it's new, a light coat all over is good enough (and it will help put back some of the oils that were lost in the water dunking process). Once you have applied a light coat all over, you can concentrate on the palm and the hinge. You also need to get the laces--especially in the web and fingers. This is often overlooked. You might be amazed by how much stiffness the laces can give a glove. I've relaced completely broken in, floppy gloves with new lace and they basically need to be broken in again.

If you want be a little more agressive in the amount of breaking in the conditioner will do, you can try the Wilson Pro Stock conditioner or Rawlings glovolium cream. Make sure it's the cream (it comes in a can similar in shape to snuff--like Copenhagen). I've found the glovolium in the bottle, which is a very light oil, is basically useless as a leather softener--but on the plus side it doesn't darken tan leather much at all.

The Wilson Pro Stock conditioner and Rawlings Glovolium cream may darken a tan glove a little more than you'd like so you might want to test some of the leather under the wrist strap. If your glove is black, you don't have to worry at all about darkening the glove. Make sure you wait at least a couple of days to see what color it will turn because most glove oils lighten in color once they fully dry.

The nuclear bomb of conditioners is Franklin glove oil (not the Dr. Glove Franklin "Foam"). It is usually sold at the Sports Authority and other sporting goods stores (or you can get it online). This oil come in a white circular bottle with a black cap. This is the stuff I remember using when I was a kid in the late 70's and early 80's. This oil will usually turn a honey tan glove dark brown so beware if you don't want a dark tan glove. If you have a black glove, obviously darkening is not an issue. I have yet to find a glove that could not be softened with Franklin glove oil. Another word of caution--this oil (unlike Lexol, Wilson Pro Stock, or Rawlings glovolium cream) will make your glove a little heavier (or a lot heavier if you apply it repeatedly).

Once you have conditioned the glove the rest is up to you. I have a Nokona glove mallet (you can get one online--I know Akadema also makes one sold online by Sports Authority) that is very good at developing the pocket. You simply pound away. For breaking down the hinge and web the best thing you can do is work the glove open and closed over and over again with your hands, and most of all, play catch.

If you don't have someone to play catch with you might try going to a batting cage and catching the balls with the glove (rather than hitting them). I've done this and it's a very effective way of getting a glove broken in in a hurry. You might want to go during off-peak hours so there's not a lot of people watching because I'd guess some batting cage owners might get freaked out if they saw someone doing this. I've never had a problem, but I've always been discreet.

If anyone else has comments or other "favorite ways to break in a glove" I'd love to hear them.

[JC]

Thanks for all the input.

(My Horween gloves are "shelf-queens" and I do not plan to use them.)


I have two HOH gloves that I need to break-in.

I used the Franklin Dr. Glove on my son's PRO303-6JBT glove.
The glove broke-in rapidly. He made the glove his "gamer" after about 2 days of catch!

I tried the Dr. Glove on my PRO NP5, and the glove is still hard as a rock!

Both gloves have "U.S. Steerhide", not oil treated leather.

I prefer not to put water on the glove, so I guess I will continue to work it as much as possibe.

I am going to get a glove mallet from Jay Yennaco who lives local to me and sells custom made gloves under the "Yennaco" name.

Thanks again for all the assistance!