To flare your baseball glove or not to flare? This question may have come into your mind quite many times if you are a baseball player.
As a baseball player, we are pretty sure that you must always have been looking for ways that can easily up your game. This can only happen when you are looking to bring improvements and adjustments, starting from your performance to the baseball stuff you use.
One major improvement that has proven to improve baseball games for various players is flaring their glove.
If you have heard about this and want to know what are flared baseball gloves and how to flare a baseball glove, look no more, as you are exactly at the right place.
What is a flared baseball glove?
Before moving to how to flare baseball glove, let’s first know what a flared baseball glove is.
If explained in the simplest words possible, a flared baseball glove is one whose size has been adjusted through a technique called flaring. This flaring technique involves stretching the material on the inside of the glove and then adding extra leather to the palm of it.
As a result, flaring makes the pocket of the glove flat and shallow in order to create a larger catching surface. Such a surface on the baseball glove is suitable for infielders who are responsible for transferring the ball faster and therefore need a flatter glove pocket.
Read: Oil to use to Break in a Baseball Glove
How to flare a baseball glove? Step by Step Guide
Now that you know what flaring a baseball glove means, if you are actually looking to flare yours, here are the easiest steps to follow to get the job done. Before that, make sure you have all the things mentioned below to easily flare your gloves:
- Baseball gloves
- Shoelaces
- An oven
- Oil
- And baseball.
1- Preheating the Oven:
Once you have collected all the necessary things to flare your baseball glove, the first thing that you need to do is to preheat your oven to around 200 degrees Fahrenheit. When you are done preheating the oven, it’s time to move to the next step.
2- Put oil on your glove:
The next step to do is to grease your glove. If you are wondering which oil you should use, there is no such restriction, as you can easily use any baseball glove oil of your choice. However, it is always better to check if the manufacturer has any particular oil in the recommendation. Additionally, this step may take much of your time, so you need to ensure that your oven is done being preheated since you immediately need to keep your glove in the oven once it is done getting greased. You only need to take a small amount of oil and put it on the glove’s fingers, laces, and back.
Read: Baseball Gloves for Shortstop
3- Put the glove in the oven:
Now that you have greased your glove, it is time to put it inside the oven. For ease, put it on the cookie tray and ensure you do not keep the glove inside the oven for more than five minutes. This heating of the glove step is basically done to make it more flexible so that the adjustment of size becomes easy.
4- Test the Flexibility:
After five minutes are completed, remove the glove from the oven and check its flexibility to see if it is adjustable enough to get flared. Suppose five minutes of heat isn’t enough to make it flexible. In that case, you could repeat putting the glove inside the oven with one minute of increment until it reaches flexibility, where you can easily adjust it according to your requirements.
5- Start stretching the glove:
Once the glove reaches its flexible point, you need to start stretching it. Make sure you are applying the right amount of pressure since the more pressure is applied, the better the flare. Continue stretching the glove until it becomes fit for your hand’s grip. Focus more on the thumb and pinky fingers and apply more pressure on them to get a better flare.
6- Make the pocket:
If the glove has reached the flare, which is according to your hand grip, now is the time to make the pocket. For this step, all you need to do is take a baseball, place it in the glove of the pocket and then tie it using a shoelace. Leave the glove in this shape with the baseball tied overnight so that a shape is formed. This step will create more defined pockets on the glove.
7- Repeat if not satisfactory:
You do not need to get the desired flare on the glove in one go; therefore, you may need to repeat the process to reach your desired amount of flare. Sometimes, it can also take several days to get the job done according to your needs.
Read: Why Are Baseball Gloves Different
Frequently Asked Questions:
Should you flare your glove?
Yes, flaring the glove can prove to be great for infielders and outfielders. For an infielder, a flared glove helps in channelling the baseball into the pocket of the glove, while for the outfielder, it gives the glove a wide area to catch the ball.
What is the importance of flaring baseball gloves?
- Flaring baseball allows the player to grip the baseball with more ease.
- It ensures that the player can transfer the ball faster.
- Flaring also ensures that the ball fits the player’s hand better.
Read: Best Leather Conditioner for Baseball Gloves
Conclusion:
Baseball is all fun and games until you cannot grip the ball as you want. This is where the flaring your baseball glove technique comes to the rescue. As a baseball player, if you want to have more successful catches and quickly transfer your throws, you may need to flare your baseball glove. If you are wondering what actually does it mean by a glove that is flared and how to flare baseball gloves, our article has gathered all the necessary steps and information for you to get the job done without any difficulty.
