Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Hello all,

I recently bought myself a new glove and have began breaking it in, but after about a week of solid pounding, the ball still bounces right out of the pocket and ends up in the web.

I didn't have this problem when I was breaking in my Rawlings GGP2004, that thing was vacuuming balls into the pocket within a few days. So, I was wondering if my problem is because the leather is inherently stiffer on my new glove and needs more breaking in, or is my new glove just designed to catch the ball closer to the web? Is there a fix for bouncy pockets?

Btw, this is my first post here and I gotta say its so great for someone like me trying to learn more about their gear to find a forum with so many experienced and enthusiastic people~

Thanks!

-Tim.

Tim,

What type of palm pad does it have? Any?

Sometimes the cheaper Rawlings gloves have a piece of foam in the palm pad, but the better ones have leather. I did not see a pic or know that number....if it is a Gold Glove series ($80+), the piece should be leather.

I had a Rawlings that had the foam stitched into it, and I experience the same problem....I took the heal apart, and cut the piece out, laces and all....this solved the problem for me.

Another question....have you tried breaking it in without placing a finger in the index stall? That can help with a bouncy pocket as well....and it is easier to do.

Hi dwags4him,

Thanks for the reply. My old Gold Glove has a sewn in leather palm pad, and my new glove also has a sewn in palm pad, but i'm not sure whats in there, so this may be the problem.

I'm gonna keep at it for another week or two...hopefully the pocket will soften up and absorb the ball's impact~

Thx!

Hellohello~

Just wanted to follow up with an update on the bouncy pocket problem I was having.

Well...problem's solved! I was just impatient I guess. All I had to do was a week's worth of the common breaking-in techniques, and the ball now happily plants itself into the pocket. I think what helped the most was a bit more Nokona NLT, slight stretching and softening of the pocket with a wooden mallet, and of course playing more catch. The tried and true methods are definitely the way to go~

My new glove is a Kazuma by the way. I'm not sure about the US branch of Kazuma, but the Taiwanese branch fills the local custom glove orders out of a local factory. Being Taiwanese myself, I wanted to support the local glove makers, and they returned the favor with a really nice glove at a very nice price (especially with the exchange rate). Here are some crappy cellphone pics:





The leather I chose is translated literally as "hard leather". I don't have any technical info about this skin, but I can say that it feels a lot stiffer and sturdier than the leather of my GGP2004 which I bought about a year ago. The Gold Glove series uses an oil-injected leather I believe, someone correct me if I'm wrong~ The KZM is also lighter in weight which was a nice surprise.

I know "made in Taiwan" usually gives off cheap vibe, even for many Taiwanese, and I'm not here to try to prove anyone wrong~ Just sharing my fine experience with KZM gloves!

Thx for reading!

-Tim.

Nice glove! Leather looks like it is high quality and the craftmanship looks to be very good as well.

Tiawanese products are not poorly made. My wife is "Made in Taiwan" and she is "best quality."

I have had about 10 kazuma gloves, and they are pretty good quality, the only problem I ever had was the color of the glove would fade alot in sun and use. Red would end of pink and dark blue like grey after one season, nice glove for the price, I use to get them for about 180 total

I've never used a Kazuma before but I have to agree that looks like a nice quality glove. Just curious, whose autograph is on the ball in the background?

Thanks for the compliments!

robin_buckeye: Yes, I agree. Taiwanese manufacturers are definitely capable of making high quality products, just depends on which market sector is targeted.

bledwett: I got mine for NT$4000 (not including shipping, I picked mine up) which is about US$125 with today's exchange rate. I thought it was a pretty sweet deal~

wbunnell: That ball was signed by 劉榮華 (Rong Hua, Liu), a former manager of the Sinon Bulls. I don't know if you follow CPBL (the pro league in Taiwan), but the Bulls were the champions in 2005 under his management. Kinda sad that the CPBL isn't doing so well recently, most people show enthusiasm and passion only when the national team is playing~

-Tim.