Very interesting and time tested advice! It is almost exactly how we got my son's first TeeBall glove started, five years ago and yet, the advice was first given 60-80 years ago.
Back then, all baseball gloves were leather inside and out. They were made from heavy tough hides and were padded with raw wool. They were even laced using Rawhide, the toughest leather lacing you can get. Man, those mitts could get uncomfortable if they were allowed to dry out in the sun. They would wear your hands raw. I used to see news reels of teens beating on their gloves with baseball bats, trying to soften them up again.
It is also interesting to note that Shaving Cream in those days, contained plenty of Lanolin and Glycerin, which is now the unprintable "secret formula" in those mysteriously unmarked $5 foam treatments for mitts. It is sold in most Sporting Good stores in one or two ounce cans.
Today's shaving cream contains distilled water and some skin softeners, but not much. The key words today is "cheapest."
Only one in a hundred kinds of shaving cream contains lanolin and glycerin ingredients anymore. When you can find it, the good stuff will also contain some aloe and three or four kinds of natural vitamins in it. It is actually better than the old stuff. It is usually referred to as "Medicated shaving cream, with Menthol"... menthol being-- peppermint extract. Which all together gives you quite a sensation, particularly if you rub it in your eye....chuckle.
My baseball gloves seem to like it too. Last year I bought four cans of the good shaving cream, 10 to 12 ounces in each can; for under $2/can.
It is a fun glove treatment during the Season. I have yet to meet a young player that doesn't love to put a pile of it in his mitt. When rubbed in, it drys in about 5 minutes and leaves a white residue. I encourage the boys to use a rag to wipe it off the seams and anyplace it has built up in the corners. It is not the shaving cream I am after in those areas, because it is good for leather and nylon thread. It is even good for the balls they catch. But, it is the dirt build-up in those places that destroys stitches.
Without shaving cream applied, I have not been able to get even one child to wipe off their glove, no matter how dusty it is.
Baseball playing boys everywhere seem to love dirt. And Shaving cream. Even the ones who make millions per year, like JJ Putz... the shaving cream pie thrower.
So in conclusion, not enough was originally said about shaving cream, and not enough was said about which baseball gloves need to be tied closed with a ball in it. (All Tee Ball parents need to know that much, so they will put the smallest away rubber banded around a ball). Neither was there enough said about WHICH gloves need to be put between the mattresses without a ball in them: True mitts, go in folded and can stay in there for weeks. Middle infield gloves need to be short, wide and flat with their finger tips firm and splaying outward, so don't put them in there folded, ever.
Outfielder gloves and softball gloves, OK. Put a ball in the first night, and anytime after you have cleaned them. It won't hurt them, and who knows; it might still help. ... View related article.
Poor kid probably couldn't flex his new glove when he went to his next game.
Obviously, the above "typical baseball Mom," Kate, asked the above question prior to the 2005 season We are now starting into the 2009 season. It sounds like they had days or hours until her son's first game. Her problem is long gone but the identical question is still asked a thousand times a year on a hundred baseball sites.
So. What's the answer now that the newest readers understands the question better than most of the following helpful crew:
1. First, irst, first. Don't confuse the slang term "breaking in a glove" with the process of carefully maintaining it for years with oils and creams. "Breaking it in" means: the once in its lifetime process of stretching of the palm, its pocket, and strategic lacing - to its limit without (slang) "busting it"
So.Why risk perfectly stretching a glove, perhaps to its breaking point, when only one out of 2500 ball players even bother?
Because it takes things to the next level.
Once it is stretched, it probably will "play" better ball its whole playing life; or it will soon reveal some of its cantankerous ailments in time to treat it ("spot work" on its tough parts) with oils and shaving cream. Worse yet, a cantankerous glove may even require using a disgusting "loogie" (spit) during a game or practice. A mitt that is too cantankerous, gets replaced ASAP because its a lot of trouble, and because your team hates catching your spit balls,,, so you might as well find out early.
2. If you, a working normal parent, suddenly discover there is only a day or even hours left to do all the "break in" work that takes most kids 5 seasons to complete; WELL OK, you merely have to take a couple risks. Forget the greasy exotic glove oils and any fried mitt cooking recipes, unless you want to "make do" with a mitt that still is not broken in.
Focus on what "breaking in" means. Go straight to the nearest mechanical batting cages with the mitt, about $10, and a thick leather work glove.
3. Find the fastest hardball pitching machine they have (usually the 60-80mph cage). Put your hand in the work glove and stuff them both into your son's new mitt. If your son is right handed, go stand on the Lefty side of the plate and have your son fire up the machine.
Do not let your youngster in the cage with you- because you might deflect a pitch to him, or (chuckle) you might smother him when a pitch knocks you down.
Now, this part is VERY important: If you stand directly in front of the 80mph machine pitched ball; and just stick your mitt out front trying to "hard hand" catch an 80mph heavy rubber jug ball; you are going to bruise yourself and "bust" even a medium quality mitt. Even if you land on your rear, six feet back of the plate. The next pitch might hit you in the face so wear a good helmet like a responsible parent does.
To succeed with your task:
You must use a "soft hand" style from the side of the plate; twisting and reaching forward, and immediately giving way at least three feet with your arm and body on every impacting pitch. Think of yourself as a human shock absorber during the process. If you can hold on to about half of the first set, as they try to tear the mitt off your hand, you are breaking in his mitt in the fastest possible way.
Take a breather in between sets; and nurse your hands and swelling wrist for awhile, because it will let the glove/mitt retract a little. Throbbing and swelling while doing your part is common, but will only lasts a few minutes to an hour after you are done, IF you did it correctly. Believe me, you will get better at catching juggs with professionally softer hands, and you will NEVER forget your lesson as long as you live.
So, be tough, and get back in there for more sets, as soon as the glove seems to have retracted a bit.
3. Even if it takes you all $10, you need at least 50 really good attempts at hanging on to the heavy impacting fast balls (balls that glance off the side or miss the glove do not count).
Absolutely make no more than 100 good catches even on a premium glove like an A2000 catchers mitt. Nothing can take that kind of a heavy ball pounding forever, and besides; once it is ready it - is ready for its life. Do not try to break in a glove twice.
If you are easily addicted to temporary pain, and are a glutton for punishment; go buy your son's next "new" baseball glove and break it in too. Who knows, you might find out your hand is broken tomorrow. But if it's not, then play catch with him every chance you get, using both new gloves, because you've earned it.
Be certain to always remind him that as good as he is, he is always Lucky when he lets you help him. You will not be lying. My 8yr old demanded that I let him help me break in his 2nd Catcher's mitt, and he actually held on to a couple in the first set. Now, I will always be able to remind him that he was Lucky I was there to catch the other 98, and always will be.
Back to the subject.
4. Examine the "broken in" glove carefully and often during the process, to make certain the glove is a survivor. If you have 24 hours after breaking it in; clean the palm and pocket with saddle soap (glycerin exactly as directed) so there will not be any grime or grease left over from contact with jugg balls or whatever dirty baseballs he has used during prior practices. Always remember, whatever was on the ball, is now on the surface of his glove, and that is bad.
From that point on, during that season but particularly AFTER any muddy or dusty games; rub in plenty of a shaving cream that contains at least lanolin and and glycerin, and hopefully also contains vitamins and softeners like aloe. It is harder to find good stuff, but big chains carry it. A good shaving cream will dry in 5 minutes if the air is not to humid.
Ladies, I know what you are thinking but. don't use hand lotion because there is too much water in it and it takes too long to dry. The distilled water in shaving cream wets the main leather just enough to allow the good stuff in through the tanned outside, and because shaving cream contains very small amounts of water and foamy soap, it will not drain into lacing holes, or seams of the mitt. Typically it just foams over holes until it drys white. The white color on the holes helps the owner remember to wipe the infield dirt and the white residue out of the seams, the corners, and lacing of the mitt.**
** Dirt left in the seam's small holes is what wears out nylon seams. Infield dirt is like sand paper as leather hits leather, not to mention that it is mixed with lime and paint from the diamond's markings.
Use your head: Never soak a good leather glove by using it during rain or in wet grass. There are plenty of vinyl and rubber mixed mitts out there that are blatantly pretending to be leather on the sale racks, so get one and mistreat it. Vinyl is waterproof but it soon hardens, splits, flakes, melts, and tears at the seams. Who knows what Chinese vinyl is even colored with (probably lead paint mixed in).
If you tried to "break in" a vinyl glove, you would find it breaking into four pieces before the first set was done. While soaking wet leather will "bust" a hundred times easier than dry leather or vinyl; and I have seen jagged fingernails slice through wet leather glove; more importantly I have seen cracked vinyl slice an inch of skin off many a young player's throwing hands... Not once have I seen it done by a leather glove.
So... consider a $20 vinyl mitt to be a good rainy day investment toward preserving your favorite glove, and simply throw them away at the end of every season. ... View related article.
Does it work fine? There is a raging argument about how to take care of a baseball glove. The manufacturers and salesmen are lined up with Vaseline "Yes!" while the leather repairmen and collectors line up saying "No!" ... View related article.
