Breaking in a glove takes a lot of sitting time

True fans of baseball will tell you it’s a rite of passage — breaking in your first baseball glove. It was a big deal when I was a kid.

The glove I tried out for Pee Wee League baseball in didn’t need breaking in, it had been broken in for at least 25 years and I suspect more like 50. It was the flat, Shoeless Joe style glove with no web to speak of and not much pocket. It was well worn and really hard to use even if you were experienced at catching a baseball.

It was a hand-me-down from my dad. I didn’t realize when I showed up to tryouts how embarrassing that glove would be. I think dad figured it worked for him so it should be alright for me.

I bugged the snot out of my folks for a better glove and I finally got one a while after the season started. I figured somehow with a new glove I would no longer be the last kid to finish our lap around the field during practice. I would be a starter in no time.

There had already been a lot of talk about “breaking in” your glove; how to do it, how important it was and how long it might take. Some guys used different kinds of greasy concoctions during the break-in process and I borrowed a little for the pocket to get started.

The best instruction out of all this dugout talk was to put a ball in the pocket and sit on it anytime you had a chance. I turned it into a religion.

I sat on that glove on the bench, I sat on it in the car, watching television, I even perched my butt on the thing at the dinner table. Then I put it under my pillow at night. Eventually the thing loosened up enough to use pretty well.

The glove I had through most of my youth baseball days was a Rawlings with a “Flex-o-Matic” palm. It was a great glove, a little too big for me when I bought it but I grew into it quickly. It was easy to use and everyone wanted to borrow the thing. Some years it saw more innings of play than I did.

It eventually started to dry out and the laces broke. I believe the first notice I got of this problem was when a hard throw came all the way through the web and into my face. That’ll get you started maintaining your equipment.

I learned to tie off quick repairs in the field when necessary and even re-laced that glove a time or two.

Over the years I broke in lots of gloves, including a couple of catcher’s mitts since that’s the position I ended up playing. A catcher’s mitt was tougher but I had a couple of secret weapons in the way of hard-throwing pitchers. That’s the way you do it. Work it ‘til it pops every time.

Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at: [email protected]