The care and feeding of a baseball glove

Well...I am no expert...but with all three of the boys gloves we oil them down good all over then especially in the pocket of the glove, put a baseball in it and fold it around and put a couple of big rubber bands around them. Whether it's right or wrong - it seems to work well in making a nice little place for the ball to snuggle into. It works well for the boys.

A good glove, like a good dog, needs lots of love. Keep the glove next to your pillow and the dog on the floor beside your bed. It's that simple.

Some boys benefit from a sense of participation, though. They usually oil the pocket and spend a few infuriating days walking around, and smacking the ball into the pocket. You're lucky yours aren't like that.

I used your rubber band technique to break in a leather strap on my summer sandals. I tucked a fat ball point pen under the part of the strap that was rubbing my little toe, and kept it jammed in place with the rubber band. Not having any glove conditioner, I saturated it with neatfoot oil. Won't work on anything but leather, by the way.

Oh my boys are all over it Roger. We take that oil conditioner and oil it every couple of days... then put the ball back in and wrap the rubber bands around it again - for about a week - this is a new glove though. After that they take it and do like you are saying. They do a bit of smacking it into the pocket...but mostly whizzing fast balls into each others gloves out in the yard. A bit awkward at first until it gets nice and limber.

Old gloves we just wipe 'em down and oil them at the end of the season...then again at the beginning of the next season.

Sounds like a clever way to fix your sandal.

when i was a wee lad i would oil my mitts.
the only other thing i'd do to break them in was play tons of baseball.

it worked wonders on my 2nd one, which turned a dark shade of brown, and was amazingly soft.
that mitt was stolen from the trunk of our car.
damn, i miss that mitt...

five years ago, i realized i should get myself a new mitt.
i decided to try breaking it in without oil, which is effective but messy.
it's pretty well broken in now, but does tend to dry out in the winter...

I figured mitts would bring stories -- that's why I wanted to ask here! Thank you all.

One of the kids on Mo's team has a super soft mitt. It's a beautiful and amazing thing.

Oh..... Mo keeps the dog by his pillow and the mitt under his bed. That seems close enough!

First thing, you've got to steal one of your mom's bobby pins and straighten it.
You wrap something around one end while you hold the other in the pilot light of the stove.
It makes a sudden flame and a bad smell when the rubbery bit at the end burns.
When it gets hot enough, you brand your name into the thumb.

You need to toss around a ball a bit until the glove decides where it feels best.
That's where you put the ball when you wrap it up.

Neatsfoot oil is the best thing for oiling it up.
My friend Bobby Keane said he used bacon fat, but I never believed him.
It takes a lot of pushing and pulling and swirling to really work it in.
Use your fingers no matter what your mom says.
Rub it up good before you even start with the oil.

When you wrap it up, use rags.
It won't like rubber bands or string.

Mismi's description of how to take care of a glove is the right answer.

A boy i knew had gotten a really nice glove, had oiled it and put a ball in the pocket, and then left it aside for the winter (the glove was a Christmas present). When Spring rolled around, he discovered to his horror that his mother (as she explained it) had found it had gotten some nasty, oily stains on it, so she ran it through the washer until the "stains" were mostly gone, and then, since she couldn't figure out how to iron it, she ran it through the mangle several times, and then put it under a board with some tires on top in the garage--until it was nice and flat.

He recounted this to us with tears running down his cheeks, and nobody made fun of him for crying, because we all experienced a vicarious thrill of horror at the thought. We took him over to Charlie's house, fixed his glove up as well as possible, and then Charlie kept it until it was serviceable again.

first take some sunflower oil

pour a little in the bottom of a pan, heat oil and add one kernel of corn untill it pops, cover the bottom of the pan with popcorn, shake pan vigorously until all kernels have popped, put in bowl, lightly salt

find a ball game on tv, eat popcorn and enjoy the game

best use of oil in relation to baseball i can think of

what ...exactly... are we talking about here?

Oiling a baseball mitt, to make it more supple.