I won't stay in a world without gloves. . .

June 6, 2011 7:44 PM

Few connections are deeper and more intimate than the bond between ballplayers and their gloves. I had a Spalding (because my family could never put out the money for a Rawlings). . .and I wrote "think" on the backs of the fingers.
posted by Danf (31 comments total)

I had a really cheap synthetic glove that was impossible to break in. It was as rigid and unpliable after all my best efforts as the day it was purchased. Ironically, these qualities made it appear brand new after several years, so I couldn't justify replacing it. That glove ruined baseball for me.

I want to buy a decent glove for my 8-year old (and myself, natch). What are good choices?

Hopefully this is on topic enough to stay here instead of AskMeFi.
posted by CaseyB at 7:55 PM on June 6, 2011

I spent many evenings saddle soaping my glove to make it soft and pliable. To give it that special patina. Sadly, I no longer care for the game...
posted by jim in austin at 8:05 PM on June 6, 2011

I threw the ball with a buddy of mine yesterday. Used the same mitt I used in Little League when I was a kid. It's worn to all hell, but I don't see myself getting a replacement anytime soon.
posted by CancerStick at 8:11 PM on June 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Why did you write 'think' on the back of the fingers?

That seems peculiar, because like most sports, baseball is a game where you need to just react a lot more often that you need to think.
posted by dbarefoot at 8:15 PM on June 6, 2011

My old Louisville Slugger glove has been with me since I was about 8, even though I haven't played in fifteen years or more.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:20 PM on June 6, 2011

I want to buy a decent glove for my 8-year old (and myself, natch). What are good choices?

I've always been partial to Rawlings Fastback (which looks like it's not made anymore), but a few years ago I came across a Mizuno Powerclose and it's been great—soft and supple, with a perfect pocket right from the start; no break-in necessary (although that's half the fun, right?) A really good glove that I used for a while for softball and then handed down to my son.
posted by stargell at 8:37 PM on June 6, 2011

I got my older brother's glove. It was a little big but I couldn't complain. I was left-handed, but only for baseball. I still have the glove, I just don't know where.
posted by ddaavviidd at 9:17 PM on June 6, 2011

Not long ago I asked a buddy of mine if he happened to have a baseball glove--he'd been kind of lonely of late, and there's nothing quite like a game of catch to pass the time and get your mind off things. He didn't, so this weekend we went to a sporting goods store to shop for one. We must have tried on every glove in the store, but finally he found one he liked at a good price. Now, after just one game of catch, he's all about baseball: finding a team to root for, playing catch, watching games, getting a bunch of guys together and heading out to the ballpark... I want all my dudes to have a glove.

Right now I've got a cheap Mizuno. It's kind of thin, hurts like hell on anything thrown or hit hard, but it's my first glove since little league, and I'm rather fond of it. When I'm working again, I'll probably spring for a nice outfielders glove: I've wanted one with a trapeze style pocket since getting a real good look at Ichiro's one time. They're pretty pricey, but you get an awful lot of value for a glove, even if you're not on a team and just play catch a few times a year.
posted by millions at 9:28 PM on June 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wore out my old Wilson glove I got when I was six or so. Retired my second Wilson glove for a Louisville trapeze style glove that I still have; about 12 years old. Got a Mizuno as a backup glove, which is nice, but it doesn't have the dirt, sweat and glory history of the Louisville.

In regards for a good first glove, I also agree Mizuno. Keep a ball in the glove when not in use. Do not try and get it to fold flat. If it is a little stiff, dont buy glove oil, that stuff ruins your glove. work some old foam style (not gel) shaving cream into the pocket, put a ball in it, and wrap the 'hand' of the glove over the ball, little finger over thumb with a piece of cloth. When it is wrapped tight, toss it in the dryer for about 15 minutes. Do not let your wife catch you doing this. When it comes out let it sit wrapped overnight.

Next day she is ready to play.

And yes, it truly becomes a love affair.
posted by somnambulist at 9:35 PM on June 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

And one more thing.

Certain skill sets make baseball the most beautiful thing to play, a practice in philosophy.

Thinking, being calm and aware of your situation in stressful circumstances.

Knowing when to stop thinking and let your brain work unencumbered.

When to get pissed off, when you say to yourself nothing will take this from me.

Baseball is a zen koan in motion.
posted by somnambulist at 9:47 PM on June 6, 2011 [3 favorites]

Even fewer connections are deeper and more intimate than the bond between ballplayers and their cups.

Baseball is a zen koan in motion.

Perhaps, when it is in motion.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 10:11 PM on June 6, 2011

Actually, baseball is a sport where there are so many different types of situations, you have to think (at least before hand) to know what you're going to do.

If you're a short-stop, with runners on first and third and one out, where are you going with a grounder hit right to you? What if it's 4 steps to your right? Oh, and are you up 3 runs, or is it a 0-0 tie? Early innings or late? You're doing different things depending on all of those circumstances.

I'm no pro, but if it's me on the field, I'm thinking about all of that before the pitcher even gets ready to throw it. I'm guessing that's what Danf meant.
posted by claytonius maximus at 10:29 PM on June 6, 2011 [2 favorites]

I've been a fan as long as I can remember. I first listened to baseball broadcasts on a Philco cathedral radio and remember drawing up scorecard forms when I knew a game was going to be on that I could listen to. I memorized stats that were published in the paper back in the 40's. Today I still follow my favorite team, one I followed then.

My glove is hanging on the wall in an, ahem, tasteful grouping of sentimental objects and images. I well remember breaking it in and playing a lot of women's softball wearing that glove. I even have a scar to brag about, the result of a collision with a catcher.
posted by Anitanola at 10:39 PM on June 6, 2011 [1 favorite]

When I started playing little league, pops gave me his Al Dark signature model glove to use. Throughout my childhood I wondered who this "Al Dark" was.

Eventually I forgot all about it, though always remembered that name. Then about a year ago, while watching Ken Burns' "Baseball" there was a mention of his name. I brought it up to Pops, and a whole conversation ensued. A little moment, to be sure, but a bonding one.
posted by ShutterBun at 11:52 PM on June 6, 2011

Don't think, it can only hurt the ball club.
posted by bwg at 1:24 AM on June 7, 2011

I've been carrying my Lance Parrish catchers mitt with me since roughly 1987, and I'm just waiting out my family's first born son (my son or my nephew) to hand it down. I can't wait to take "Uncle Tony, who's Lance Parrish?" and turn it into a magical tour encompassing Lou Whitaker's steadiness, Jack Morris' HOF credentials, and what, exactly, constitutes a Rusty Kuntz.
posted by GamblingBlues at 2:13 AM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Gloves are important in games the rest of the world plays too. A few years ago the England cricket team were awakened in the middle of the night by a fire alarm and told to evacuate their hotel. They hurried out into the car park, dressed in a motley assortment of jackets and pajamas clutching the odd wallet or personal effect just in case the fire was real. Jack Russell, their brilliant wicket keeper but forever the eccentric, had salvaged nothing from his room but his beloved wicket keeping gloves.
posted by joannemullen at 2:16 AM on June 7, 2011

Few connections are deeper and more intimate than the bond between ballplayers and their gloves.

Why are sports figures the only ones allowed to have these "mystical" almost shamanistic properties in our social mythos? You don't think physicists have attachments to their first calculators or policy wonks to their reg books? You'll never see a the Natural or Field of Dreams written about a real estate agent or an accountant.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 5:00 AM on June 7, 2011

I lost my glove a few yeas ago while I was coaching my son's little league team. I had had it since high school. But in the garage I've still got a Ron Cey model glove that my father-in-law found in his garage and gave to me. The kids on the team always asked who Ron Cey was, and I made them look it up online and report back to me the next practice on what they learned about him.
posted by COD at 5:54 AM on June 7, 2011

My Rawlings Fastback was stolen when I was in college (it was ancient even then) and I'm still angry about it almost 20 years later.
posted by jalexei at 6:37 AM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

The kids on the team always asked who Ron Cey was

He was the PENGUIN!

(One of the stupider things the Dodgers have done was trade him to the Cubs.)
posted by Danf at 6:42 AM on June 7, 2011

(One of the stupider things the Dodgers have done was trade him to the Cubs.)

Yeah, 'cause he made all the difference in Chicago.

[BITTERCUBSFANIST]
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:48 AM on June 7, 2011

Why are sports figures the only ones allowed to have these "mystical" almost shamanistic properties in our social mythos? You don't think physicists have attachments to their first calculators or policy wonks to their reg books? You'll never see a the Natural or Field of Dreams written about a real estate agent or an accountant.

Ah, if this were just about sports figures. This is about so many of us who have played, even those of us who never got past Little League. Read the responses upthread - this is hardly a bunch of sports figures posting here. Ny glove was lost in a move dome years back, but I still know the feel of it. I spent a long time breaking that glove in, and a lot of time walking around the house with it on and with a baseball in the webbing, hoping the other kids were going to start a game in the street. I've looked for another glove, and I'll probably get I've some day, but none of the ones I've tried on feel right. They don't feel the way I'm used to a baseball glove feeling.
posted by azpenguin at 8:19 AM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

Rawlings, Stan Musial H-Web. Three fingers in the pinky, pointer finger in the next. The glove was all web. Closest thing to the world wide web in the 60s.
posted by benjonson at 9:11 AM on June 7, 2011

> Why are sports figures the only ones allowed to have these "mystical" almost shamanistic
> properties in our social mythos? You don't think physicists have attachments to their
> first calculators or policy wonks to their reg books?

Fencers' facemasks (and SCA fighters' helms) are even more personal than gloves and whatnot, and there's nothing mystical about it at all. It's because it's your face/your head you stick in them, not just your hand, right before you go get sweaty. I've seen some breathtakingly beautiful SCA combat helms, including a couple of close copies of the Sutton Hoo helm, but I would no more want to borrow one of these and try it on than I would want to borrow someone else's jock cup. This is a consideration that doesn't apply to your HP 35S.
posted by jfuller at 9:46 AM on June 7, 2011

I don't remember the name on my glove. And I don't really know whether it was broken in or not, because I never had all that many balls thrown to, or at, me, much less hit in my direction, way out in the proverbial right field.

But I will remember to my dying day the taste of desert dust on the well-chewed rawhide ties on the back of it.
posted by darksasami at 11:06 AM on June 7, 2011 [1 favorite]

CaseyB - A former women's college softball player once told me it was unnecessary to spend lots of money on a glove - one that was full grain leather (most low end gloves I believe are top grain, or synthetic) and fit well would serve you for years. My current glove is a Rawlings that I've had for about 6 years now. I'm currently recovering from an injury that might prevent me from ever playing again. This post makes me sad :(
posted by Calloused_Foot at 12:09 PM on June 7, 2011

I lost one glove when I lent it to neighbors and forget to get it back before moving. I lost another glove when someone broke into my car and stole my stereo and the contents of my trunk. I still miss both of them.
posted by Rhomboid at 2:53 PM on June 7, 2011

"I switch up," Hunter says. "When she's being disrespectful and doing what she's not supposed to do, like missing balls, I get rid of her and pick up another one."

That's fucking stupid.
posted by Scoo at 9:09 PM on June 7, 2011

My two gloves were in the trunk of my car when it was stolen. A Wilson and a Slugger, I don't remember if either was a signature model or not. The Wilson was my first. Got it in a KFC bucket that was under the tree one Christmas, I remember being mildly nauseated by the grease+leather smell upon opening it, but I used that glove from elementary school through high school. It had a smiley face on the thumb, and my name on the pinky. Both had been rewritten several times and had that distortion one only gets from re-traced Sharpie on leather. The other was rescued from the lost&found at the baseball complex on the military base where I worked for a season. There I learned to count change in my head, a trick I use every day. The glove was still there at the end of the summer, so it came with me. One summer, I worked briefly at the Wilson factory in Tullahoma, TN, making gloves. While I still wear leather and prefer it to most other fabrics, I am now acutely aware of how nasty a job it is to work with it. Oddly enough, I never got a glove while I worked there, even though I think I got a pretty big discount. The gloves (along with the car whose trunk they were in) was stolen my sophomore year in college, on a backpacking trip in Grundy County, TN. I don't remember what else I lost but I still miss that car and those gloves.

All this is to say, I, a particularly non-athletic type, who only occasionally played catch (hence the gloves in the car's trunk) can spin a meandering tale around the mere mention of an object that I carefully bonded into an imitation of my own form. (cf: boots, vehicles, jeans and other objects I spend waaay too much time and effort on) and I can totally get taking your glove to bed like a teddy bear.

Damn, I still miss that Wilson.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 11:19 PM on June 7, 2011

When I were a lad, we had a softball made out of some grey leather. That thing had the weirdest smell I've ever smelled in my life.
posted by sneebler at 7:37 PM on June 8, 2011