<p>My brother received a new baseball glove for Christmas. It looks great and is a good fit for him. However, it is as stiff as a board. I know that people always say that nothing breaks in a glove better than using it. However, this option is kind of hard since it is winter. Here are several methods that I have heard might work:</p>
<p>Shaving cream</p>
<p>Oil (not sure what type is best though)</p>
<p>soaking the glove in water for a few minutes</p>
<p>microwaving the glove</p>
<p>Vasoline</p>
<p>Petroleum Jelly</p>
<p>Hitting the pocket of the glove with a hammer</p>
<p>I even heard of running the glove over with your car so it closes more easily</p>
<p>The method I used for my glove is to put shaving cream and canola oil into the glove, beat the pocket in with a ball, and tie the glove closed overnight with the ball inside. This process worked well for me, but I am open to new ideas. I chose to ask parents rather than kids my own age because back in the "day," your generation was the one that devised many of these crazy ideas for breaking in gloves. Also, many of the gloves sold now are pre-softened so that they don't really need this kind of treatment. Therefore, many kids have never had to break in their gloves. </p>
<p>I bow to smcdad for advice on this one...your method is correct and it works well. My husband uses the shaving cream and ties the glove with the ball inside as well. Another thing he's done is to turn it inside out when not in use...hard to do, but it helps. He's also put it under the wheel of the car overnight. Working and stretching the leather is the thing.</p>
<p>Have fun breaking that in and you are a great brother!</p>
<p>Hi Hepstar,
At any sporting goods store you will find glove oil. (It's inexpensive.) Follow the directions for working it into the glove, and I do tie a baseball up inside after working the oil in. Leave it there for a couple of days, and then I just stand around when I feel like it and throw the baseball into the pocket of the glove repeatedly from a distance of about a foot away. You'll finish breaking it in once the weather gets into the 50's regularly. (Yes, this is actually the mom of momof3sons. I coached high school varsity fast pitch softball for 12 years, and have played baseball/softball since I was a little child.)</p>
<p>How about Hot Glove? It's sold in all sporting goods stores. It's a can of foam. You preheat the oven, spray foam on the glove, rub it in, and "bake" the glove on a cookie cheet for about 3 or 4 minutes. We've used it for stiff dance shoes, too.</p>
<p>The tradition in our family (my husband did it and has passed along the practice to our DS) is to condition the leather with glove oil, put a baseball in the glove, tie the glove up, then sleep with the glove under your pillow for a few days. I always thought the last part was rather cute!</p>
<p>Play lots of catch with it. When you start your practices with your team, ask coach to use your glove during infield practice. Do you still have your old glove?</p>
<p>StickerShock- you beat me to it!
Hot Glove is the best thing for breaking in baseball gloves (for ds), but even better for breaking in Irish dance hardshoes (for dd).
The latter was part of the content of one of her college app essays. We had visitors just as she was taking her shoes out of the oven.</p>
<p>Oh gosh! Those Irish Dancing shoes were brutal to break in! Shoes in the oven would be hard to explain to visitors. I've heard of depression-era hobos throwing an old shoe in a pot of water to make stew.....</p>
<p>I coach little league baseball and I have seen my share of siff gloves. I have started to use my usual method for my brother's glove and it is working out just fine. I made this thread to see if anyone had other ways that might be better than my own. My neighbor swears by the oven method, but it seems a bit extreme. I tried sleeping on my glove a few times, but it wasn't the most comfortable experience in the world. My brother starts practicing at the beginning of March and his season starts at the beginning of April. I'm sure that the glove will be usable by then. Thanks for the tips.</p>
<p>My dad always used neatsfoot (?) oil or glove oil on mine - we rubbed it down and then we'd bind it with string with a softball inside until the weather got warm enough to use it outside.</p>
<p>My catcher's mitt is in the shoe shop to get repaired right now - the top of the webbing frayed apart due to some bad leather, and I couldn't bear to break a new one in, since it took me almost two seasons to break the one I have in properly.</p>