First Glove of the Year Coming in for a Tune Up

mheimer_45 said:

Is this still available?

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This one isn't available but these are.

Bender said:

I bet you got really good at using both hands

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Being amphibious has its advantages.

Maggot said:

If you swap hands real quick you gain a stroke.

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Only in golf.

Short-bus said:

One of the biggest things I miss about being a kid, having a true passion for baseball. For myself and the kids around my neighborhood, that was nearly all we did until high school, which then football took over. I remember the excitement of getting a new glove for Christmas, and my dad and I oiling it and breaking it in, then playing catch in the yard year round. I only have daughters, and neither got into playing baseball. My oldest loved listening to the Royals play on the radio (we didn't have cable), and in 2015, I took her to her first ever MLB game.....world series game 1. Kinda screwed the pooch there, how do you top that? That game went until after 1am, 14 innings, it was a great game to be at, and one of those memories that you make sure to keep at the front where you won't forget it.

Wish I was able to retain that passion for something that was once such a staple of American culture.

Branden

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I really miss those years. My kids are grown now, all three played, two daughters in softball and my son in baseball. My son and youngest daughter have cannons for arms. My oldest daughter is tall and could mash with the bat. My son had three D1 scholarship offers and turned them all down. Once he was done with high school he walked away from the game. Six years later he now plays on the Tesla softball team.

SRW said:

Take the glove off between pitches? I’ve never heard of that. I coach a 12u team, that glove could be one of ours. I’ll have to get a pic of the A2000 my son just got from his cousin that committed to Baylor to play baseball.

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I repair and tune gloves for several pro teams and a lot of colleges and high schools. If you watch players, especially pro and college they take their gloves off between pitches and wipe the sweat off of their hands on their pants. About the only pro players that don't do that are the soft handed guys that like the hard stiff feel of brand new gloves. Matt Williams was like that when he was with the Giants. Once a glove started to get the feel of breaking in he picked up a new one.

Here are some basic rules for maintaining leather gloves, not the cheap vinyl WalMart gloves. If a glove has leather piping it is a good glove, a glove with vinyl piping won't last a whole season for a serious player.

1) Never oil a glove, never means never. If the glove starts to look dry only use Rawlings Glovolium because it has only natural lanolin and water in it. I don't care what your coach, 25 other players, or the pimple faced kid at Scheels that sold you the glove said, don't oil it.

2) Never use shaving cream on your glove

3) Never steam a glove or put it in a microwave

4) Never pound on a glove with a mallet

5) Never put two softballs in it and wrap it with rubber bands

6) Never let anyone put their hand in your glove. You wouldn't let them put their hand in your girlfriend and you are going to have the glove longer than her.

7) Never throw a glove in a bat bag and pile a bunch of crap on top of it

8) Never lay a glove flat and leave it there

9) The only way to properly break a glove in is to play with it. When doing that the glove breaks in to the shape of the players hand and playing style. See rule #6

10) When storing a glove put it on a glove stand or spread the web and set it on the tips of the fingers or on a table with the edges of the thumb and pinky with the web spread open.

This is one of the many warnings that come with new Wilson pro quality gloves.

HeavyAssault said:

Any available in MIL??

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Baseball in general is an MOA sport, kind of like hockey but not as violent.

ggmanning said:

I hate baseball. Playing and watching is worse than watching paint dry. Yaer round baseball pay to play travel ball is something of a money leaching cult in the SE. I dig the leatherwork though. Excuse the first cup of coffee commentary.

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A lot of people think baseball is boring to watch, same with hockey, bowling and golf. I agree the pay to play travel ball can be a grind, especially for parents. Typically the coaches suck as bad as the other kids parents. On a typical travel team there will be three or four kids that are highly motivated and excel at what they do, the rest couldn't make their league all star team. The other kids are just there, either because their parents want them to be or they want to be able to tell their friends they play travel ball. My son played on several travel teams in the SE. We got a lot of "You ain't from here is you?" and "What are you some kind of god damn yankee?" We never had to pay, my son was always recruited to play on those teams. There is also a lot of home cooking in those tournaments in the SE. We ran into a lot of cheaters and scumbags. Most of the cheaters were local umpires.

Aside from the travel teams, the allstar teams were a lot of fun.

jmp1 said:

I absolutely despise a crooked ump/ref!!!
I've been "removed" from a basketball game because of calling out blatantly crooked calls. Calls so bad the other teams parents were apologizing. There is nothing more disgusting than adults that will cheat a youth sports game!!

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There is an umpire in Lexington VA that probably still has a knot on his neck from a fast ball. My son was closing a game and was throwing heat right down the middle, the catcher wasn't even moving the mitt to catch the ball. The umpire was calling balls, after three in a row my son was visibly upset on the mound. He rarely ever showed emotion when playing. I walked to the mound and told him, and the catcher "There is only one way to fix this, you either hit the batter or the umpire, and throw the ball as hard as you can fucking throw it. You two figure out what you are going to do" and I walked back to the dugout. My son let rip a fast ball that you could hear the ball hiss going through the air, the catcher dropped to block a curve ball, the ball went right over him and hit the umpire on the top of his chest protector and deflected up into his neck. The umpire dropped to his knees, then to his hands and knees, then to his forehead on the plate. I walked out and made sure he was okay, while he was laying on his back next to the plate trying to catch his breath I asked "You were lined up right behind the plate weren't you? That was a strike wasn't it? That kid can throw pretty hard can't he?"

I also umpired, both softball and baseball. I threw more parents out of games than kids by a long shot. Numerous times I had kids come and apologize for the way their parents acted. I also rung up all three of my own kids at one point during games. When I was umpiring I never looked at who the kid was, it was all about balls, strikes, foul or not or out or not, it had nothing to do with who the kid was. I always disclosed to the coaches I had a kid playing in the game. One time I ejected the entire coaching staff for a high school softball team for calling pitches from the dugout. I warned them twice, then ejected the entire crew and the pitcher. I met with the players from that team and told them they had to choose players to be the 1st and 3rd base coaches when they were batting and they could choose one parent to come into the dugout and help manage the lineup. I told them if I see anyone calling pitches from the dugout again they will forfeit the game, the pitches have to be called by the pitcher or catcher. That team went on to win the game and every player came and shook my hand after the game. When I filed my game report and turned a copy into the AD of that high school I wouldn't have wanted to be that coaching staff.

ggmanning said:

Even just a county over "daddy" or "cousin" ball is strong. Especially if out of state.

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Depending on the county "daddy" and "cousin" might be the same person.