I bought my first baseball glove today. At 41 years old!

Our kids try a different after-school activity each semester and after going through swimming, football, soccer, karate, art classes and a few others I'll never remember we've found one that we enjoy watching as much as the kids enjoy playing - softball.

Sitting in the bleachers as the light fades and the huge lights get turned on is perfect. Fellow foreigners to US soil have to experience it.

So, of course the kids want to (and need to) practice at home and no matter how much I enjoy hitting the ball a few hundred feet the kids get bored and tired fetching it after a while. So I bought the glove so that we can stand out there in the time-honored practice of throwing a ball around.

Here's a kind comment I received from a reader:

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It is all in how you break it in

James, owning a glove means nothing until it is broken in. There are many, many methods. The one I use was fine tuned by my father who grew up in the Bronx, just a few block from Yankee Stadium.

First off I assume you bought a LEATHER glove. If not, well then this whole endeavor is hopeless. If it is made of a space age material please consult the appropriate Starfleet manual.

Here are the basics - you would be better off sending it up here to have it done by the pro, but you may be able to pull it off.

Goal: get the glove nice and flexible and get the pocket nice and deep and set in the correct place.

Materials: 1 can of neatsfoot oil (heck I have used 3-1 oil, worked fine), 1 baseball (if you are really playing Softball - then a softball is needed!), 1 t-shirt ripped into 2 inch strips then tied together to make a long band - something like you would wrap a mummy in.

Step One: Find a place where you can sit comfortably and not worry about spilling oil all over the place. Same goes for clothing. If the oil is not in a container that is good for just squeezing a few drops out at a time, get it in one.

Step two: Get the glove on the proper hand. Put a few drops of oil in th pocket and rub it in with a circular motion (using you index, middle and ring fingers ONLY)until it is absorbed. Notice that the color is getting darker - that is good. Basically, if you showed up at a ball field with a glove that was golden and new - you would get beat up - because clearly you didn't know how to break in your glove. A glove should be a rich deep color. Anyhow, I digress.

Step three: take a drop or two and work it into the hinge - the part where they pinky folds over the heel of the glove. Work that in good.

Step four: Throw the ball into the pocket with your meat hand as hard as you can. that will help you figure out where you really want the pocket to be. if the ball is hitting the pocket - it shouldn't hurt. Every glove and hand is different, people wear their gloves differently too. So your task is to find the part of the glove that is just above the first knuckle on your index finger and a bit to the left (assuming you are a rightey and you are properly wearing a glove on your left hand) toward your thumb. Note the pocket is NOT the webbing. It is below the webbing. Back in the day, the webbing only consisted of a couple of strands of rawhide - you do not want to be catching anything in the webbing except in special situations. You always want the ball to find it's way to the pocket.

Step five: OK hopefully you are getting an idea of where the pocket really needs to be. so take a few more drops of oil and work it in there and in the hinge too.

Step six: Dinner TIME!!! When your mom (hey this is being passed from one kid's memory to another kid's memory) calls you for dinner, you have to wash your hands. So your glove breaking in is almost done for the night. Take your hand out of the glove - it should give you a good feeling as you slip out of the glove and into the fresh air. put your baseball carefully into the spot that you have deemed to be your pocket. Now roll your glove up - rolling the pinky in under the thumb. Make sure it is tight. Then wrap the whole thing up with the t-shirt string - like a mummy.

Step seven: There is some debate about this step - but heck it worked for my dad, my brother and me (and a number of kids we did it for) - slip that little mummy under your mattress.

Repeat this process everyday for the better part of a month. Be sure to play lots and lots of catch (every single day). This will help develop the pocket even more. By the end, you will have a glove that can - if it is a pretty good quality leather one - that will last you for the rest of your life - I still have the glove I used as a 14 year-old works great.

Also this process is really most important for baseball, but really does help for softball gloves too.

I hope you find this whole process as satisfying as I did the last time I did it - some 28 years ago. I can't wait until it is time for my daughter to get her first glove. that is about 5 years away. Best, Nick

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wow, thanks Nick. This is like getting a second (but American) childhood! I can't wait to start this sitting on the porch with the kids in the evenings..