Breaking in a Baseball Glove
By JENNIFER VOGELSONG
for Smart
With Little League season in high gear, you’ll want to make sure your child has the perfect glove for catching pop flies and stopping line drives.
Members of the Family-Child Resources Little League team go for a fly ball during their first game on opening day at Noonan Park in 2005. They are Andrew Mackley, front, Jonathan Ronera, rear left, and Gerrod Adams.
Who says dad has to be the expert on all things sports in your house? Here’s the best way to break in a baseball glove according to some local residents.
Marlyn “Curly” Holtzapple puts two baseballs in a glove and wraps the glove with a piece of string or rubber band. Then, he throws it in the bathtub, lets it soak overnight, then sets it out in the sun to dry.
That’s the way you form it, and you’ll have a glove to your liking,” said Holtzapple, who played minor league baseball in York in the 1950s alongside Brooks Robinson and had a long career playing and managing summer baseball in York County’s Central League.
Mike Resetar, varsity baseball coach at South Western High School and coach of the South Western York American Legion baseball team, does the same thing. Once the glove is dry, he rubs it with a glove conditioner before using. He said the whole process takes about two weeks, if done right, but added, “within a week, you could probably be playing with it.”
Don Trout, the former varsity baseball coach at Dallastown Area High School, has helped hundreds of teens break in their new ball gloves over the 20-some years he has coached. He also adheres to the baseball-tied-in-a-glove-and-dunked-in-water school of thinking, but he says it’s what you do with the glove while it’s drying out that’s most important.
Most of the time, he and his players will take the rounded end of a wooden bat and pound the glove to form the pocket. Between poundings, he tells players to store the glove in a plastic bag to slow down the drying process.
When it finally dries out, Trout recommends coating the entire glove with Vaseline or petroleum jelly. “A lot of places will sell grease or glove oil ... but that dries the rawhide laces out too fast,” he said.
SMART TIPS• Keep the glove in a cool, dry place when not in use.
• If the glove gets wet, dry it with a towel and let it air-dry. Do not put it in the oven or near a heater as it may dry out the leather.
• Do not over-oil the glove. Rubbing oil or glove conditioner over the glove a few times each season is plenty.
• Get broken or damaged lacing restrung from time to time and have torn eyelets repaired. If you don’t know how to do it yourself, check with a local sporting goods store or shoe repair shop.Source: Don Trout, baseballgloves.com
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