How to Properly Break in a Baseball Glove

Break in your baseball glove before taking the field.

New baseball gloves are stiff, and they need to be broken in properly in order to loosen them up. Playing baseball with a stiff glove might cause you to drop a ball that you would otherwise be able to catch with your old, familiar glove. One of the most important things that you can do to loosen up your glove is to play catch.

Things You'll Need

• Bucket
• Cool water
• 2 baseball gloves
• Shoelace
• Shaving cream with lanolin

Instructions

1. Pull on the fingers of the glove to stretch them out. Gently pull them up, and then stretch them from side to side, as well as back and forth.

2. Bend the fingers of the glove down towards the palm, and then bend the thumb in until it's touching the ring finger. Continue doing this for approximately 10 minutes.

3. Pound a baseball into the glove's pocket repeatedly. You can put the glove on to do this, or you can choose to leave it off. This helps form the glove's pocket.

4. Fill a bucket with cool water, and then submerge the glove in the water for five seconds. Slide two baseballs into the glove, the first one in the pocket and the second underneath it in the palm. Fold the thumb in toward the ring finger, tie the glove shut with a shoelace and place it under a mattress for two days to dry out.

5. Pound the pocket with the ball again for approximately 10 minutes. Have someone play catch with you, and wear the glove while you practice catching the ball. This helps loosen the glove's hinges, and it also forms the pocket. If you don't have someone to play catch with, you can visit a batting cage and catch the balls that come out of the machine.

6. Rub a quarter-sized amount of shaving cream into the glove. Make sure that the shaving cream contains lanolin, as this is the ingredient that helps condition the leather. In this case, more is not better, because a large amount of shaving cream will make the leather deteriorate faster.

7. Continue to break in your glove by pounding the ball in the pocket and playing catch.

References

• Nokona Baseball Gloves: How To Break In A New Baseball Glove
• Madison Baseball Association: Buying and Breaking in a New Baseball Glove
• Baseball Gloves: Breaking in A Baseball Glove