It’s the age old question – “What’s the best way to break in a new baseball glove?” And it seems there are dozens of suggestions such as sticking it in water, to putting baseballs in it and sticking it between your mattress and box spring. Some of the more drastic (and NOT suggested) methods include driving over it with a car, and sticking it in the microwave.
What do Major League players suggest? How about just playing catch with it?
Some tips to help you:
OIL – If you’re going to use oil, do it sparingly, and only on the pocket. Oil will definitely soften a glove but there’s such a thing as too soft. Your glove should have some firmness to it. Oil also makes a glove heavy and will eventually break the leather down. If you have a young player, the last thing you want to do is make the glove feel heavier to him.
CREAM – Use a lanolin-based cream. Lanolin helps soften the leather and doesn’t add weight to the glove. Rawlings makes a good product called “Glovolium” or you can even try shaving cream (honest). Just make sure the cream has lanolin in it.
MICROWAVE – Other than leaving your glove out in a soaking rain for a couple of days, this might be the WORST thing you can do to a baseball glove. The bad news if you do this is it will make the laces brittle and they will fall apart when you play catch with your new glove. The good news is we do expert re-lacing at PBI (we’ve already re-laced three brand new gloves that were put in a microwave).
PLAY CATCH WITH IT – Hands down, this is the best way known to man to break in a new baseball glove. Try it, it’s fun!
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