Before & After: The Glove Lab

We are a baseball house.  Our boys love it, Mrs. RCS and I love it.  Half of my kids’ t-shirts are baseball-themed (my oldest is in a big Mookie Betts phase).  We talk about baseball all year. Do the math.

We’ve been taking our boys to Braves games for as long as they could walk, and we try to see games when we travel out of town (Miami Marlins, Georgia Tech games, some minor league games, etc.).  What’s even better?  Our boys are both playing ball this year.  The older one is two years older than the youngster, so he’s got two years of experience. This season we have an Oriole (7-8 year old league) and a Twin (5U).  Both coach-pitch.  New cleats.  It’s awesome.

Rewind 100 years.

My brother and I grew up in the same type of house.  HUGE Braves fans.  We used to listen to the games with Dad on an old AM/FM Panasonic radio out on the back porch and watch the bug zapper.  We both played…a lot.  My brother was good – he made a bunch of travel teams early on, so it became a culture in our house. Note: very different travel teams than what is out there today (read: money grab…).

He probably could have played serious D2 baseball if he didn’t get burnt out.  I wasn’t college baseball material, but could hold my own.  We went to a ton of Braves games at Fulton County Stadium.  We watched the Sid Bream slide in our den and subsequently tomahawk chopped in our front yard.  We were pretty hardcore.  Still are.  The group text between my brother and my dad is very Braves-heavy.

Anyway…I grew up playing middle infield (and some catcher because I’m a maniac).  I idolized Ryne Sandburg, Ozzie Smith, Jeff Blauser, etc.  Watching guys turn double plays was better than seeing home runs.  Poetry in motion.  More than anything, I wanted a Rawlings Trapeze glove.  Ozzie Smith used one, and I thought it was the coolest thing on the planet.

However, I never got one when I was in high school.  Spending money on car audio took precedence (obviously).  Since I’ve started getting into it with my kids, I got the urge to search Ebay.  Now, back when I was in high school, I remember the Rawlings Gold Gloves being ~$250. These, along with the Wilson A2000s were the gold standard of baseball gloves.  Being a middle infielder, and having Jack Legget pound a ‘smaller glove’ into my head when going to Clemson Baseball camp, I prefer an 11-11.5″ glove.

I started searching eBay, and found this 11.5″ gem for $95 + shipping.  The description said it’s been ‘sitting in a closet’ for a while but is in ‘great shape’.  Add 30-day returns, and it was mine.  Out of the box, I was VERY happy with what arrived:

Largely in great shape.  No rips/tears/wear spots in the leather.  I guess that this played one or two seasons and that was it.  The size of the glove is just right.  I love the 11.5″, as it forces me to catch with my palm and use two hands (great lesson for the kiddos).

Now, you all know that I’m usually not satisfied with any ‘off the shelf’ option, so I reached out to my man Chris at The Glove Lab about doing a before/after on a glove re-lace and recondition.  All in.  The Glove Lab is incredible (their Instagram is an incredible follow).  They are a small, family-run business out of Phoenix.  They officially started in 2019, and have quickly become a go-to spot for baseball players at all levels, up to and including a ton of MLB players.  I shipped it to Arizona and eagerly anticipated its return.

Two weeks later, my hair was blown back.  What I pulled out of the box was a better-than-new glove that is well above my talent level (which is already extremely high).  The leather is conditioned.  I asked for brown lacing to give it a contrasting look, and Chris knocked it out of the park.  The construction integrity of the glove feels significantly upgraded.  It’s ‘tighter’, but doesn’t feel like it needs to be broken in (if that makes sense).

Here are a few images of the glove in the lab:

How cool is that?  I could sit in that workshop and watch Chris work on these all day.  Image the stories he could tell…

So here it is…the finished product – cleaned, conditioned, re-laced, and ready to hit the field with my kids.  I’m probably more excited than they are…: