Smash ’Em, Bake ’Em or Sit on ’Em: The Inexact Science of Breaking In Gloves

Can one still buy "golvolium"

As a little leaguer I was advised to put a ball in the glove, with some oil, and slept on it under my mattress. I think that was intended to promote dreams of better ball playing.

I had a Don Zimmer model glove in late '50s little league. The regimen out here was neatsfoot oil (you could never find fresh neats when you really needed one), ball in the pocket with the glove wrapped tightly around it, and thank goodness we hadn't heard about running the glove over with a car. As far as I could tell, my glove was magnificently broken in. I, by contrast, was magnificently inept in every facet of the game: I couldn't hit, run, field or throw. I blame Don Zimmer.

You need to pair this article with one about dancers breaking in pointe shoes; the similarities are striking.

While growing up in Detroit in the mid-1950s, Harvey Kueen was the Tiger's shortstop. I begged my dad to get me a Harvey Kueen glove. He did and we used saddle soap to condition the glove and always put it away with a ball in the pocket. Every time I smell saddle soap now it takes me back to that glove.

From Johnny Bench's 1980s Saturday morning TV show, "The Baseball Bunch," I remember him devoting part of an episode to breaking in a new glove. I also remember applying his methods to a new glove and getting a very satisfactory result. Unfortunately, the only detail I recall from his method is that shaving cream was involved. Also unfortunate: a modest effort to find that old video clip was unsuccessful. But maybe you, fellow NY Times reader, know where it can be accessed....

Everyone over 50 knows you use neatsfoot oil, a ball, and elbow grease. These kids today....

Wonderful story!

70 years ago we used neatsfoot oil to help break in a glove and keep it supple. Google tells me the oil is still around.

This is another example of the brilliance of the "Dear Evan Hansen" musical.... If you haven't seen it, the score on this subject is the backdrop to a fascinating father-son like scene "To Break in a Glove..." is the name of the score.

Good read, and glad the Mets had plenty of time to share their secrets. Perhaps if they'd heard of neat's foot oil, they wouldn't have so much time, here at season's end, to ruminate about proper ways to break in gloves. If you know what I mean...

Take the glove and put a ball in it. Add mineral oil to the glove. Tie it. Put it under your mattress and sleep on it. Next day, take it out, use the handle of a wooden bat and pound the palm of the glove. Put it back together (i.e. put the ball in the glove and tie it back up) and place it under your mattress. Repeat for 1 week. Patience.

Omg, is there anything more fun than this article, those photos, and these comments? You’ve cheered me out of my end-of-season out-of-the-playoffs funk.

Neetsfoot oil was my go to softener

There's only one way to break in a glove. You smear it with Vaseline, close it over a baseball and strap it shut. Leave it for 2-3 days. Then you dry it off. Bingo.

1. Let your dog play with it, under your supervision 2. Fold it where you want it be creased and put it under the leg of the twin bed you sleep in because you're twelve years old 3. Worship whichever deity you enlist for matters such as making your mitt look worn in an impressive way to the other kids

When I was a kid in the 1950s we rubbed in mineral oil (or baby oil).

Does anyone remember the ballplayer that submerged his glove in a vat of coffee to condition it. I thought it was a Yankee or a Twin.

Fun read. In addition to pounding my "Bucky Dent" glove repeatedly with my fist, I also slept with it between my mattresses with a baseball inside and a rubber band wrapped around the whole thing. I am pretty sure shaving cream was involved as well.

Really great article. My first glove was a hand-me-down from way back when. My first purchased glove was a Bob Gibson. I don't remember the maker. Back then I used a bucket of old motor oil to soften it up and lots of elbow grease. Fast forward to yesterday. My son is twelve and playing Fall Ball. He's a southpaw. The coaches keep sticking him at first. I, with foresight, purchased a Rawlings first basemen's glove last year. Yesterday we spent the day breaking it in. My new go-to is mink oil. Rub it in everywhere and begin to work the mink oil in. The next step is to put a ball in the webbing, wrap it with a bungee cord and proceed to pound it on everything. The ground, the kitchen counter, and the ball on top of a post. We moved to the baseball field where for the next three hours he stood at first and I threw bucket after bucket of balls to him. Next Sunday we'll start all over again.

Got a deal on a Jimmy Piersall glove from a local hardware store in Elmhurst, Illinois back in the late fifties. "Lexol," the man behind the counter said. "You can't go wrong." He was right. I just checked. They still sell this wonderful product.

Linseed oil was my dad’s advice. I can still smell it.

The only thing for breaking in a glove: neatsfoot oil. In High School I used so much of the stuff my outfielders glove (Tony Oliva Model) was so soft my teammates called it "The Rag". But if the ball hit the center of the mitt the glove would wrap itself around the ball. Never popped out.

I was "high tech" breaking in the gloves of my youth. Stick a baseball in it, wrap it tight around the ball and put it under the mattress and sleep on it for a few days. Worked for me.

Why do all players in the photos have their index finger placed OUT of the finger sleeve???

I can't believe there's no mention of Shigeaki Aso...

If you make an error, obviously, it's the glove.

I learned the art of breaking in a glove from my father who learned it from his father. My grandfather was a semi pro pitcher in the Hudson Valley back when you had a glove for life and my father would play catch with me with the glove he carried through Europe in WW II. The secret sauce, linseed oil. It made the glove smell awful but it worked.

The article points out the dozens of myths for breaking-in a leather baseball glove. But then there is no mention of the science of leather. 1. Leather’s pH is acidic, (4.5 to 5.0 on the pH scale). Most cleaning products are alkaline (greater than 7.0 on the pH scale). When you have two materials in contact with each other that have significantly different pH values, a neutralizing chemical reaction occurs. When this happens in leather, it breaks down the internal fiber structure (rots the fibers), shortening the life of the leather. A classic example is the shaving cream myth. It typically has a pH greater than 8.0 (to help soften the hair for easier shaving). Shaving cream or other alkaline material on leather will cause pH induced damage to the leather. The longer it sits on the leather, the greater the damage. 2. Glove moisturizers are used to loosen the internal fibers of a new glove, assisting in the break-in process. Using the wrong type of oil has consequences. This is where a scientific measure called the “Iodine Value” (IV) comes into play. Simply put, the iodine value measures the potential for rancidity. The higher the value the higher that potential. Two common oil types used in commercial glove moisturizers is Neatsfoot oil (IV 50 – 70) and Mink oil (IV 84-89). A rancid glove is not a great idea. The solution is to find glove maintenance products that are pH neutral to leather and have a very low iodine value.

Put the glove on and slam your throwing hand fist into the pocket about 25,000 times while working/squeezing around the fingers in the glove to get a comfortable fit for the fingers. You need the right pocket, the right flex and the right squeeze. A good glove is like an old friend. It is reliable and comfortable.

For many years, from my childhood through my college uears and even into semi-pro baseball, I had this special baseball glove. It was a very small glove, a Rawlings, I do not remember what model but it was a MUCH older design, from the late 1940s or early 1950s, blond leather with a very small webbing, MUCH smaller than the webbing on any glove made today. My grandfather bought it for me. He was perhaps the greatest Washington Senators fan of all time, having been devoted to them from the foundation of the American League in 1901, and his extreme skill with descriptive language has made it possible for me to see the hated Ty Cobb sliding spikes-up into second base or Walter Johnson throwing his fireballs with this little effortless flick of his wrist. It's like I was there although I was still 40 years away from being born. My grandfather would not let me use that glove until he had "conditioned" it properly, and I wish I knew what he did. After he gave it to me and I started to use it (I was usually a left fielder or second baseman) it became widely known as the "Magic Glove." All I had to do was wave it in front of the baseball in any orientation, backhand, forehand, facing the wrong way, whatever, it didn't matter. Without any action on my part, the glove would catch the ball. It would catch any ball that touched it. If I knew what he did to that glove I would tell the Nats but try to keep it secret from everyone else, because, well, I root for the Nats.

Gerald, A friend of mine who pitched for the Yankees also had the prescription of soaking the glove in Neat's Foot Oil, then put a baseball in the glove, tie it up with string and let it soak it in a bucket of water for a few days. Then take it out, dry it off and let it breath a few days. Then get out and play catch. Burn out catch if you are up to it.

What?!? Not even one reference to neets foot oil? You can't break in a glove without neets foot oil. I'm sure the major leaguers are just trying to hide their most important secret.

Neats foot oil was key I remember. And wrapping it with a belt, ball in the pocket (softball for outfielders gloves, hardball for infielders). Then tuck it under your mattress at night and sleep on it. This not only helps break it in, it inspires excellent dreams like a walk off grand slam to win the seventh game of the World Series ...

I remember as a kid in the late 60s using Crisco to break in our mitts.

My brothers would wrap a new glove in a towel, then run the car back and forth over it a few times...

I still have my beautiful Whitey Lockman first baseman's glove somewhere in my closet (I think, I hope). Don't remember what I did to break it in. But I did do something. Sadly catching a ball involved a whole range of skills: dexterity, ability to concentrate, good hand eye coordination, quickness, not shying away from a ball thrown your way, ability to scoop up a ball thrown into the dirt. Even if I imagined I was Whitey Lockman it didn't help much. But it is nice to mention his name here. He was a crucial part of those great NY Giant teams in the early 950s

I always put a ball in the palm of the glove between games to keep the glove from getting a crease. A crease reduces the area of the glove that can snag a ball.

I've played infield and outfield for 45 years (over-55 softball leagues are my salvation!) and so of course have two gloves. The break-in story belongs to the newer, 7-year-old Nokona outfielder's glove. It arrived stiff, I oiled it then flexed it through a winter while watching football games to get it to snap shut; hundreds of times a game and it still wasn't in game shape. Another winter - still not flexible enough. I called the manufacturer. They said there is NO shortcut to breaking it in and to avoid all the swimming pools, microwaves, saunas, car roll-overs etc. Just oil it with Glovoleum and keep flexing it. It took me 3 full years before I could use it in a game. Which is why I so prize my infielder's glove, which is 40 years old and has numerous leather patches installed by a local cobbler who everyone knows does gloves. There is even a piece of sewn-in leather reconstructing the pocket, which had worn clean through! And one over the index finger of the glove, which was disintegrating. It's a Ron Cey model - he played for the Dodgers and Cubs and retired 32 years ago! I hope it gets me to retirement, but at 65 I'm still a middle-ager in my league.

Played BB for 40 years, broke-in dozens of gloves. Found best method when a fairly new, still stiff, glove got drenched in rain storm. Put in trunk of my car, wrapped and tied around ball. Baked in summer heat, removed after a few days, perfect!

The "glove lady", Fran Fleet of Northern CA, is a local legend. Would love to see a highlight of her. Girls use gloves, too =).

3-in-one oil, baseball in the pocket and tied with a belt for a couple of days. Then use, the best conditioner of all. A new glove, it is a magical object with years of hope in the pocket.

Baseball gloves and Cuban music - this is really what I want to think about at the beginning of my week. Our dad showed us how to work in the neatsfoot oil over the course of a few weeks, which usually did the trick. As to the music, he was more partial to Dixieland, courtesy of his Louisiana friends and a bit of whiskey

Great article, brings back memories I recall using a product called Glovoleum which was made especially for breaking in gloves and apply liberal amounts to the palm area of the glove and then tying the glove closed around a baseball and leaving it for weeks. Even then, there was no guarantee the glove would be less stiff.

As a five year old a owner of my first glove, I was playing with my two older brothers and their new gloves in our front yard in LA. Our next door neighbor pulled into his driveway and upon inspection, told us our gloves need breaking in. He folded each tightly and, one at a time, stuck them under a rear wheel of his car. Hanging out the open driver’s door so he could be sure to stay atop the glove, he slowly rolled back and forth until he felt each one was right. When he was finished, we thanked him and went back to playing catch with our much-improved gloves. We didn’t question his placing our brand new gloves under the wheel of his car because he was John Roseboro, the then catcher for the Dodgers. As little kids we probably just assumed everyone had a professional ball player living on their street.

As a baseball dad from baseball crazy Oakland, CA, I've broken in every type of glove for my son who played every position, including catcher. Each glove is different. I would never moisten his catcher or first base MITTS, but always moistened his infielder GLOVES. Outfield gloves require oil, but never water, while a little H2o never hurt to quickly give infield gloves flexibility. The catcher mitt should NEVER be oiled or watered; use the pitching machine to wack new ones with about 500 fastballs before seeing play. Keep a ball in every mitt or glove web when not in use, wrap firmly with broad nylon string, and place under pillow before each game or practice.

Once I broke my glove in (47 years ago) I replaced the laces four times to get it through high school and USAF baseball. I still have that glove.

My uncle (by marriage) and his brother (who played for the red socks at shortstop) told crazy stories of tying three baseballs into a glove with the fingers bent over towards the heel. They would then soak it in a bucket of water for a couple of days before the coating it in neatsfoot oil.