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HomeSports & OutdoorsBaseballHow To Break In A Baseball Glove

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Breaking in a new glove.

Aug 27 '01

The Bottom Line Supervised heating in the oven. Oil. Play catch with it. Put a ball in it, wrap in a towel an stick under the corner of your mattress. Play more catch!

I advocate the "oven method".
PREHEAT oven to 325. (If you use "Hot Glove" follow the directions.) stick the glove in the oven for
3 to 4 minutes. Take it out and apply oil while still hot. You should be able to handle the glove. If you cant,
its to hot.
I like to heat up the glove and use glove oil all over. Then heat it again and oil the pocket only.
Play catch with the glove. At night, put a ball in the pocket, wrap it in a towel, stick it under the
corner of your mattress. I would only do the oven/oil treatment twice. Storing the glove with a ball
in it is the best thing to do after that. The weight of a mattress is evenly distributed across the glove
so no one area of the glove is over stressed which may result in earlier failure after a couple seasons use.
I have 9 years of coaching with kids showing up with new gloves and being unable to field a ball.
I have never heard a complaint from a parent after explaining this method of speeding up the break
in process. I, of course, always insure the glove in question is real leather!
As to the heat harming the glove. Do you ever leave your glove in a car on a hot sunny day?
All day? Well 325 for 3 or 4 minutes, in my opinion, only helps the oil get into the leather. Also many
gloves made overseas will have a coating on them like a sealer. The heat will help the oil
get past this coating. The Hot Glove treatment will also help you get rid of the sealer which is
designed to keep the gloves fresh in storage and shipping from hot humid climates like the Phillipines.
Your milage may vary.

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