How to dry a wet baseball glove isn’t the same as how to clean a baseball glove, so that you know. Since baseball is a summertime American pastime, it is a guarantee to encounter bad weather.
During heavy rain, the game is paused for safety and other reasons; on the other hand, during light rain game goes on. Either way, rainwater or any kind of water is bad for leather baseball gloves. At the same time, if you are a baseball or softball player having a wet leather baseball glove or wet softball glove is common.
If you want to know how to clean a baseball glove, we got you covered. If you want to know how to dry a wet baseball glove, continue reading.
From the beginning, I am telling and reminding you to be aware of damaging the entire glove with water, either from rain or from somewhere else. Water on a glove equals harmful consequences; it’s as simple as that.
Since water will harm the glove by making it stiff and foul-smelling as well as brittle, cracks will form on the glove once it dries improperly.
How to dry a wet baseball glove left out in rain?
As a result of our research on the kinds of damage, rainwater does on baseball gloves we created a four-step process to help you dry a baseball glove properly.
We have created a simple step-by-step guide for how to dry a wet baseball glove that even beginners can work with. Here are the steps to drying a softball or baseball glove quickly:
- Wipe with a towel.
- Dry Glove
- Apply conditioner
- Shape glove
For a more detailed explanation, keep reading.
Wipe using a clean towel
For the first step, all that you need is a clean towel. Using the dry towel, go around the glove and remove as much moisture. Be particularly careful not to miss a spot since it will cause problems later on.
Whatever you do, don’t wring the glove to remove water. First of all, it won’t work all that well, and second of all, it will damage the leather and the glove as a whole.
The Interior of the glove can be cleaned using a towel and a narrow stick of some kind. Push the towel into the finger slots using the bar and move it around a bit to remove all the water.
Dry the wet baseball glove
During the second step, you will not require any tool, just your patience. For the next step to finish, you need to place the wiped glove in a room temperature area. The whole process of dry the glove can take anywhere from a day or two up to a week.
You can use a hair dryer to speed up the process, but the time needed won’t decrease all that much. Also, the hair dryer needs to move around, or it will damage the leather glove.
In fact, the area must be away from the sun since we need the glove to dry ours as naturally as possible. In general, the UV rays of the sun are very bad for baseball gloves and softball gloves.
To explain, understand that a baseball glove is made up of leather which is essentially animal skin. And like all skin, too much sunlight can cause unrepairable damage.
Apply glove oil or glove conditioner
In this step, you will need something a bit specialized, a baseball glove oil or baseball glove conditioner such as Wilson or Nokona glove conditioner. Alongside either of those two items, you will require a soft sponge will be necessary as well.
In general, a good glove conditioner or oil help soften up the leather gloves and maintain their flexibility and durability. Both of those qualities stop the glove from becoming too stiff.
Shape the glove
Finally, we are at the last step of our drying a wet baseball glove process. After good oiling, a glove needs to be reshaped into its previous form. For this step, a baseball ball is required.
Place the ball in the pocket of your glove and wrap the whole thing using a rubber band. When you do the wrapping, make sure the shape created by the rubber bands looks like an “X.”
Chiefly the “X” made will help provide pressure to the glove pocket to take on its previous shape. Getting back to how it was will take a few hours, so no worries.Let’s watch the video
If you don’t want to do it like this, keep playing baseball, and that will be all. However, this process will be longer and not be guaranteed, so that you know. Buying a glove wrap is another alternative.
What not to do when you dry wet baseball glove
While performing the procedure outlined above, you need to have patience and care. Simply put, you shouldn’t look for shortcuts because there aren’t any. Furthermore, the drying process of the glove requires the natural passing of time.
Avoid the microwave
Just like us, when you search for drying gloves, you will no doubt hear about microwaves. Please don’t listen to those pieces of advice; they are all false or pure coincidences.
There is a 100% chance of damaging your glove by listening to them. By putting your glove inside a microwave, you will essentially cook them, which will lead to destroying its structure.
Basically, the oven’s microwaves will make the leather super hard and cause it to lose all its flexibility. Therefore making the glove unusable anymore from then on.
Don’t let wet glove sit for too long
As the heading says, never leave your glove soaking for too long. All it does is discolor the glove while ruining the protective oils of the glove. If too much time passes, then moisture will damage the glove beyond repair.
Keep in mind about direct sunlight as well since that causes leather damage as well.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)
When should I replace my baseball glove?
There are plenty of signs that show that you should be replacing your baseball glove. Even if you can repair or relace your gloves, some damage requires you to replace them with a newer model. Here are some of the common signs of a worn baseball glove:
- It doesn’t hold its shape anymore.
- There is obvious wear and tear.
- The weight of the glove is unbalanced.
- The padding is completely worn out.
How long does a youth baseball glove last?
Any player who competes on a regular basis will need to dry their sweaty baseball glove after cleaning it. Due to repeated cleaning and drying, the gloves wear out.
So youth baseball players regularly need to replace them since they don’t last too long. On average, baseball gloves last about 2 or 3 seasons. If you maintain it properly, it may last a little longer, but only by one season.
To conclude
Now that we are at the end of the article let me rephrase some of what we discussed. Keep in mind that water will for sure damage the leather of the glove, thus rendering it unusable.
Also, remember that sunlight is harmful to your leather, so don’t dry it in an area that gets direct sunlight. Overall the process we talked about isn’t the fastest, but it keeps the glove dry.
In the end, I sincerely hope that the research and process we created helps you out somewhat. All the steps are easy to remember, so don’t make the mistake you usually make and adequately dry a wet baseball glove to play your next match.
