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How to Break In a New Baseball Glove

How to Break In a New Baseball Glove – Tips, products, and advice for helping you break in a new baseball glove or mitt. With Little League baseball season fast-approaching, many parents of younger children think they can purchase a new glove at the sporting goods store and be ready to go for the first day of practice.

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How to Break In a New Baseball Glove

Trust me, the mitt will be almost useless unless you break it in. Not much has changed since we were kids in terms of buying baseball mitts. You have to “break ‘em in” yourself and what you buy off the shelf is too stiff to use on the field right away.

I used to break in my baseball gloves all summer by playing catch and applying tons of Linseed oil. The oil was messy and you could ruin your new mitt by using too much. Heck, I even used to have my mom run over my glove with a car to break it in! Brutal, but it worked!

Buying new baseball gloves may not have changed but things have gotten easier in terms of breaking in a new glove quickly so kids can dive right into baseball season with a great new mitt that works well the first day of baseball practice!

Hot Glove is a foam that comes in a spray can and offers 8 treatments per can. All you need is an oven and a cookie sheet. It takes 4 minutes to use and worked surprisingly well.

HOW TO BREAK IN A NEW BASEBALL GLOVE USING HOT GLOVE FOAM OR SHAVING CREAM

  • Spray the entire glove with the foam and work it heavily into the glove, webbing and stitching leaving it covered in foam.
  • Pre-heat your conventional oven to 300 degrees
  • Put the foamy glove on a cloth-covered cookie sheet and place it in the oven on the top rack
  • Bake the glove for no more than 4 minutes
  • The oven will bake the foam into the mitt. Let it cool after the 4 minutes and wipe off any foamy residue (there shouldn’t be much as the foam should be baked in)
  • Vigorously flex and stretch the mitt

It works great! The product softens, conditions and waterproofs new or used baseball mitts and gloves in one easy application. There was no mess and my son was ready to use his mitt that very day. I’ve also heard you can use shaving cream instead of hot glove foam just by using an ordinary can of Barbasol shaving cream and the same steps shown above in terms of using an oven.BaseballGloveMitt

More How to Break in A New Baseball Glove Tips

  • Clean the glove after field use. The dust can dry it out
  • Put a baseball in the web or pocket of the glove when not in use and store it under a mattress to keep it “broken in”
  • Play catch A LOT! The more a glove is used the more broken in it becomes.
  • Condition it once a week with Linseed Oil or Hot Glove until you get the glove nice and loose
  • Store the baseball glove under a heavy mattress during the offseason or when not in use.

Other How to Break In a New Baseball Glove Products

  • Linseed Oil – a little messy but cheap
  • Albolene Moisturizing Cleanser – Very affordable & you can purchase it from any drug store. Thanks to Todd Leman for this tip :)
  • Dr Glove Professional Glove Conditioner – a soft foam that’s easy to apply
  • Hot Glove Products – the foam, shown above, that you put on the glove and the heat from your oven. They also make a version that uses steam from your microwave to break in the mitt
  • Barbasol Shaving Cream – but I haven’t tested this. I worry it might dry the glove out too much but it could be effective

Hot Glove retails for around $20 on Amazon but more sporting goods stores and even chain stores like Meijer carry it.

For more How to Break In a New Baseball Glove tips, ask your son or daughter’s baseball or softball coach.

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