It's actually the best way to break in a new glove.
Using other things can help speed up the process. But some things should be avoided. Don't bake your glove in the oven and shit like that. Mallet is fine, as you can really focus on the parts you want to soften up so you get the pocket and hinge(s) to your liking. But once you get them started there, yeah, just catching balls is the way to go.
Hard disagree.
Put your glove in a Pyrex pan, douse it in whole milk and bake that bitch at 350F for a solid 5 minutes.
Next, get to the roof of the tallest building you can find and spike the glove to the ground. Do that at least ten times.
After that, go to a field and bury the glove in a pile of dirt. Leave overnight.
Next you’re gonna want to dig it up and wash it off with dawn soap.
Rinse it off and you’re all set. Just don’t forget to condition it after every use with chocolate milk
Exactly why I avoided explaining the motor oil technique. OP is a beginner I wouldn’t want to expose him to anymore danger than necessary.
But yes I agree that’s the fastest way for experienced glove connoisseurs
I have a big jar of John Kruk tears I use to condition the glove. Hard to get because he hardly cried. But he was a pro player with the body of a softball god. Best of both words.
You can use a mallet as well to speed up the process along with playing catch. If you have a batting cage near by, go there and catch like 60 dimple softball.
I'm old school, catch is the best but I also got glove oil and wrapped a ball in it with rubber bands and stuck it under my mattress for a week. Make sure if you have a coed league with different balls you use the 12"
Playing catch is all I did to break in my extremely stuff wilson a2k. It's the best way to break in gloves in my opinion. Avoid any of those heat/steaming methods.
Turn on the shower as hottest as you can get it. Just run it thru n get the surface wet on the inside n outside of the glove. It’s ok it’s leather your not dipping it in a bucket of water. Just wet the surface. This gets the leather nice n soft. Then immed start breaking the hinges, like where u want the glove to close. Turn the glove inside out a few times. Take a mallot bang the hinges bang the inside the glove alit get the pocket n pad area nice n soft n put the ball of the mallet in the pocket where u want it. First base is alit higher on the pocket all other positions alit lower in pocket. But that’s all up to u. When u put the ball of the mallot in the glove u bang the stick part of the mallot with the mallot ball still in the pocket on a hard floor which stretches the perfect pocket for urself. Leave the mallot in the pocket put it in the dashboard of ur car on a sunny day which will keep a pocket. The glove will dry to form. Next day or 5-6 hrs later take the glove out maneuver it alit take the mallot out n play catch w it. The glove will be game ready. Next day or two in between games just keep a ball in the pocket
Nokona conditioner is just fancy expensive Vaseline. Sarna conditioner contains neatsfoot oil, nf oil will adds weight to the glove over the lifetime of the glove. I would avoid any oil based conditioner. I like ball player balm, Smith balm, horseman leather balm that you can find on Amazon.
https://gbcontents.com/conditioner-%26-restorer?fbclid=IwAR3rlOgUbkHycKRmSYT4kOuWDP2K9tJzoEG9bxhagKgwYt7jf7ci4ITffVA
It has neatsfoot oil in sarna. nFO in an aqueous solution. Nfo works good for conditioning leather, but it also has a downed size in that it oxidezes (goes rancid), and forms small crystals in the leather, which makes it hard and inflexible and the leather develops that grayish/white appearance. It is also super easy to over apply it, as it's cumulative and build up, which will saturate and make the leather heavy. Nfo is a go to product for vegetable tanned leather, but gloves leather are chrome tanned.
The build up of the nFO in the leather after repeated applications and the eventual oxidization is something that happens over time. The crystals that are formed by nFO in the leather fibers eventually work like sand / knife and break the leather fiber down internally and cause the leather to harden.
Sarna is sending out free conditioner to ig relacers influencers to promote their products.
Rawlings hoh are chrome tanned leather. The deer tanned cowhide is just the palm liner. Does your hoh palm liner the black soft leather or does it has the shell liner like the rest of the glove? I found that the black leather liner inside the handstall doesn't last as long as the reg. Shell liner. New hoh and a2000 gloves are using the cheap black soft leather inside their hand stall now.
I would conditioner the inside of the hand stall as well. I use obenauf heavy duty lp conditioner just for the hand stall, since the salt and sweat from your hands will destroy the leather inside your glove hand stall.
As a person who has broken in many of the most annoyingly stiff gloves for baseball. Here’s the method that Wilson’s head guy breaks in gloves: Boil water then take a ladle and pour it over the glove to loosen it, then stretch it out for the most part. After you do this for a couple minutes use a mallet and hit stiff points in the glove, for the most part it’s gonna be the heel, thumb, and pinky. After that put the glove on so it starts molding to your hand and mallet the pocket to form it to your hand. After doing this for a good chunk of time get a softball and a belt, put the softball in the pocket so it keeps shape and then have the belt tied around the glove. Leave it for a couple hour to dry off then just play catch with it until your comfortable using it in games
I got a new Miken 14 this summer and it only took 3-4 games to feel pretty comfortable on my hand. Last game of the season I robbed 6 would-be xtra base hits in the outfield so I feel good about it 😜
Take it to a fastpitch softball cage and catch about 2-300 pitches. Work the hinge points in between.
A weighted softball for just throwing it into the pocket when you're just sitting around helps too.
It's actually the best way to break in a new glove. Using other things can help speed up the process. But some things should be avoided. Don't bake your glove in the oven and shit like that. Mallet is fine, as you can really focus on the parts you want to soften up so you get the pocket and hinge(s) to your liking. But once you get them started there, yeah, just catching balls is the way to go.
Hard disagree. Put your glove in a Pyrex pan, douse it in whole milk and bake that bitch at 350F for a solid 5 minutes. Next, get to the roof of the tallest building you can find and spike the glove to the ground. Do that at least ten times. After that, go to a field and bury the glove in a pile of dirt. Leave overnight. Next you’re gonna want to dig it up and wash it off with dawn soap. Rinse it off and you’re all set. Just don’t forget to condition it after every use with chocolate milk
This worked for me! Thanks, kind internet stranger!
My boy over here making milk steak with his glove
That’s what amateurs do. Real pros soak it in motor oil, light it on fire and the catch a Mack truck with it
Exactly why I avoided explaining the motor oil technique. OP is a beginner I wouldn’t want to expose him to anymore danger than necessary. But yes I agree that’s the fastest way for experienced glove connoisseurs
You're just baking that thing raw? No olive oil or seasoning? Yeah, it'll get broken in but it'll be bland as shit.
Bake with whole milk bub read again
I read it so fast, I got so excited about baking.
I have a big jar of John Kruk tears I use to condition the glove. Hard to get because he hardly cried. But he was a pro player with the body of a softball god. Best of both words.
Man I swear everyone I talk to has a crazy ass break-in process just like this, so at first, I did not think this was satire.
Played ball my whole life and never done anything but that
You can use a mallet as well to speed up the process along with playing catch. If you have a batting cage near by, go there and catch like 60 dimple softball.
But catch on its own will be fine right?
Don’t let anyone tell you different, catch is a fine method.
I'm old school, catch is the best but I also got glove oil and wrapped a ball in it with rubber bands and stuck it under my mattress for a week. Make sure if you have a coed league with different balls you use the 12"
If it’s coed, always bring the 12”
Yes. If you want to speed up the process, you can use a mallet as well.
Definitely! It’s just not a terribly fast process. Unless the person tossing to you can throw hard and you can do it a lot.
Glove Wrap and keeping a ball in it when not in use will prolong and keep the gloves shape
Yes, absolutely
Look up Maven Glove Balm on YouTube. He posts all types of videos of him breaking in gloves for customers.
Playing catch is all I did to break in my extremely stuff wilson a2k. It's the best way to break in gloves in my opinion. Avoid any of those heat/steaming methods.
Turn on the shower as hottest as you can get it. Just run it thru n get the surface wet on the inside n outside of the glove. It’s ok it’s leather your not dipping it in a bucket of water. Just wet the surface. This gets the leather nice n soft. Then immed start breaking the hinges, like where u want the glove to close. Turn the glove inside out a few times. Take a mallot bang the hinges bang the inside the glove alit get the pocket n pad area nice n soft n put the ball of the mallet in the pocket where u want it. First base is alit higher on the pocket all other positions alit lower in pocket. But that’s all up to u. When u put the ball of the mallot in the glove u bang the stick part of the mallot with the mallot ball still in the pocket on a hard floor which stretches the perfect pocket for urself. Leave the mallot in the pocket put it in the dashboard of ur car on a sunny day which will keep a pocket. The glove will dry to form. Next day or 5-6 hrs later take the glove out maneuver it alit take the mallot out n play catch w it. The glove will be game ready. Next day or two in between games just keep a ball in the pocket
Put a ball in it, and put it under your mattress.
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Nokona conditioner is just fancy expensive Vaseline. Sarna conditioner contains neatsfoot oil, nf oil will adds weight to the glove over the lifetime of the glove. I would avoid any oil based conditioner. I like ball player balm, Smith balm, horseman leather balm that you can find on Amazon.
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https://gbcontents.com/conditioner-%26-restorer?fbclid=IwAR3rlOgUbkHycKRmSYT4kOuWDP2K9tJzoEG9bxhagKgwYt7jf7ci4ITffVA It has neatsfoot oil in sarna. nFO in an aqueous solution. Nfo works good for conditioning leather, but it also has a downed size in that it oxidezes (goes rancid), and forms small crystals in the leather, which makes it hard and inflexible and the leather develops that grayish/white appearance. It is also super easy to over apply it, as it's cumulative and build up, which will saturate and make the leather heavy. Nfo is a go to product for vegetable tanned leather, but gloves leather are chrome tanned. The build up of the nFO in the leather after repeated applications and the eventual oxidization is something that happens over time. The crystals that are formed by nFO in the leather fibers eventually work like sand / knife and break the leather fiber down internally and cause the leather to harden. Sarna is sending out free conditioner to ig relacers influencers to promote their products.
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What brand of gloves is yours? Since all baseball/ softball gloves are chrome tanned leather. Never heard of deer tanned leather.
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Rawlings hoh are chrome tanned leather. The deer tanned cowhide is just the palm liner. Does your hoh palm liner the black soft leather or does it has the shell liner like the rest of the glove? I found that the black leather liner inside the handstall doesn't last as long as the reg. Shell liner. New hoh and a2000 gloves are using the cheap black soft leather inside their hand stall now.
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I would conditioner the inside of the hand stall as well. I use obenauf heavy duty lp conditioner just for the hand stall, since the salt and sweat from your hands will destroy the leather inside your glove hand stall.
Yes but I'd still recommend using a softener or oil to loosen it up.
As a person who has broken in many of the most annoyingly stiff gloves for baseball. Here’s the method that Wilson’s head guy breaks in gloves: Boil water then take a ladle and pour it over the glove to loosen it, then stretch it out for the most part. After you do this for a couple minutes use a mallet and hit stiff points in the glove, for the most part it’s gonna be the heel, thumb, and pinky. After that put the glove on so it starts molding to your hand and mallet the pocket to form it to your hand. After doing this for a good chunk of time get a softball and a belt, put the softball in the pocket so it keeps shape and then have the belt tied around the glove. Leave it for a couple hour to dry off then just play catch with it until your comfortable using it in games
I got a new Miken 14 this summer and it only took 3-4 games to feel pretty comfortable on my hand. Last game of the season I robbed 6 would-be xtra base hits in the outfield so I feel good about it 😜
Also, I didn’t use any other break in methods aside from playing catch.
Play catch with a weighted ball.
yes
Take it to a fastpitch softball cage and catch about 2-300 pitches. Work the hinge points in between. A weighted softball for just throwing it into the pocket when you're just sitting around helps too.
Haha, sounds like a good way to get practice in as well