Breaking in a new glove

is there anything better than rubbing the pocket with some glove oil, putting a baseball in there, then wrapping it up with a belt and putting it under your mattress for a few days?

 

Try shaving cream. It'll soften the leather without ruining it. Still.....the best way is use it............a lot.

P.S. If you're going to wrap it up with a ball in it, make sure it's positioned right, especially if it's a catcher's mit.

 

Believe me

I know I'll get some push back for this but here goes.....

I've done this with literally dozens and dozens of baseball gloves and mitts in my almost 40 years of baseball.

Soak the glove in hot water for about 3-5 minutes. While it is soaking use your hands to form it and bend it, making the glove easier to use. Press on the pads in the glove to get all the air bubbles out.

Then tie 2 balls in it (one in the palm and the other in the "pocket") and let the glove dry for 3 or 4 days.

Then tighten the laces and put some shaving cream on it and it's ready for the field.

I've broken in more than 20 professional catchers mitts this way. Fielders gloves are even easier.

Who wants balls popping out of a brand new catchers mitt for 6 months anyway??? Not me!

 

Oven, Shaving cream, and some pounding of the leather for a couple of days.

 

Wow!!!!!

 

Hot Glove works really well!!! you can buy it at Dicks Sporting Goods.

 

WD40

Sounds a little weird, but darkens up the glove and breaks it in over just a few days....

 

I am "Old School", and the days of the Oven and water are long over with. Dries out the glove way too much. You can put all the oil you want on the glove, but the laces are where the damage will be. The leather today is not the leather of my youth. Here's the deal, and this is coming right from a major leaguer. Do the shaving cream thing, ..... BUT ......... the cream has to have "LANOLIN" in it. Old spice is the the only one that I was able to find. It works!

 

Lanolin

Lanolin is the trick indeed. I think Barbasol has lanolin too. $0.89 a can.

But you'll be putting lanolin on your mitt for 6 months waiting for it to break-in.

I'll stick with soaking the mitt in water (and then tightening the laces and loading it up with lanolin).

 

pound the pocket with a baseball bat to break that leather. then put a ball in the pocket and beat the ball with the same baseball bat