Vintage Baseball Glove Forum

Hi guys!

Here's one of the gloves I received from one of you, back in November. Whoever you are, thank you! It needed relacing badly, and thanks to the help of Joe and Wesley who provided me with the necessary laces and needles, I may say I managed to give some life back to this poor mitt. I don't know if the glove is worth anything, but I don't really care. It's a first baseman's mitt that I thought looked pretty neat when I first saw it. It's a Hutch B620. It's still really stiff at the thumb but I like it. So here's the job I have done:

Dude! That is a dang good job! Way to go, Moonlight!

Moonlight Graham wrote:Here's one of the gloves I received from one of you, back in November.

Awesome job!

Looks great Laurent! Like brand-new, bet that's going to make one of your students real happy.

WOW. Very nicely done

That looks super! Nice job.

robin_buckeye wrote:bet that's going to make one of your students real happy.

Yes, I hope it will, Tom! But the thumb is a little too stiff, it even hurts after a while. You can feel the "plastic spoon" inside it. Any clue about what I can do about it?

Moonlight,
I have encountered that very same problem quite a few times when re-lacing gloves. Usually that's a direct result of the re-lacing of the rawhide that supports the thumb pad. I personally have a tendency to over-tighten that piece (and the pinky pad as well) when re-lacing and oft times I can't even get my finger back into the opening after snugging it up. You might want to try undoing the knot and loosening that piece to see if that makes the opening feel better on your thumb. The way that I prevent that from happening now is to insert a 12" piece of 1/2" or 3/4" dia PVC into the thumb opening as far as it will go, and I keep it in there while I tighten up the thumb pad rawhide. When the rawhide is tight and the knot is secure, I remove the PVC and it leaves plenty of room for the user's thumb. I also use this same piece of PVC to restore finger slots where the slot openings are really snug or where the inner lining maybe has loosened. The end of the PVC pipe that gets inserted has been rounded off on the end and smoothed with sandpaper to prevent any sharp edges damaging the glove when inserting it and I always lube it up with Vaseline first so it slides in and out of the glove without a problem. It sounds kinky I know, but it works for me. Gloves should fit snugly on the finger ports, but not to the point that it hurts. I hope this helps you.

br

Moonlight,
I almost forgot to mention that you did a really, really nice job of re-lacing that glove, absolutely beautiful!! I'm not a big fan of Hutch gloves personally, but that one came out really well. Don't you just love the feeling that you get when you take a tired older glove like that and give it brand new life.

br

Thanks for your detailed explanation "br",
but actually the problem isn't so much inside the thumb opening. I can get my thumb into it easily. And I've checked the knot, it isn't too tight. It's the back of my thumb that hurts when I catch the ball and try to close the glove around the ball. If you take a look at the very first photo that I posted, you can see the sort of drop-shaped thing that is inside the thumb. That thing is probably made of plastic or PVC, and I've sadly come to the conclusion that there's nothing I can do about it. If I want to use that glove, I'll have to lose my thumb...

Thanks anyway. I'm now working on a poor old and tired catcher's mitt. For now it's a ruin, but wait till I'm done. I'll post other photos. You're absolutely right, this is a great feeling to bring some life back to an glove. This is one of the things that I particularly like about baseball. There's so much you can do on your own, it's like re-inventing your own game at home. I love that.

Well, I would definitely reconsider losing that thumb, but that's just me! Is it possible that there is a stiffener inside the thumb pad? I remember doing a six-finger glove last year that had a plastic piece in the slot for the sixth finger. Maybe Hutch used something like that and it moved when you re-laced it. I don't know Hutch gloves all that well, so I'm just guessing here. I still think that you did a really nice job on the glove. It's a shame that a really sharp looking older glove is uncomfortable. Sorry my suggestion didn't help.

Very best regards, br

Your suggestion did help in a way. Everything I read helps me understand how gloves work. A few months ago I knew nothing of this, so you see, you did help me. But I guess your last guess is quite good, the stiffener inside the thumb pad moved. It did even before I tried to relace it, because it felt just like that when I first put it on. I'll try to find a way to put it back where it should be. I'll let you know if I succeed. Thanks again!

That was the impression I got from the photo- it looks like that plastic insert has shifted too far down the thumb and isn't where it's supposed to be.

Many of these inserts I've come across will have holes in them that match up with the holes for the thumb laces. The thumb laces run through the insert to properly position it and hold it in place.

When relacing a glove with an insert, it isn't uncommon for the insert to slip out of place. I've also seen these inserts crack around the holes, and that can let them slide out of place even with the thumb laces still in.

Personally, I never really liked this feature on a glove. They seem to make to thumb too stiff. If they do shift around the result can be quite painful to the base of your thumb!

Bretman,
Yes, you're absolutely correct about the lacing holes on the insert. That would also make sense too, that the insert wouldn't stay put if the lacing holes were cracked. That's really good information. As I recall, the glove that I worked on did have the lacing holes on the stiffener.

br

Shouldn't that thumb insert be on the INSIDE portion of the thumb, between the palm and the inner lining, rather than on the OUTSIDE portion of the thumb, between the inner lining and the shell?