Hard Sell

At best, Tom's twelve year old son was skeptical.

Wilson - A2000 - 1786

Brow flat and stern as the brim of his cap, at first there seemed to be no convincing this kid. Tried explaining the process the best I could but he just wasn't having it. He'd just stare at me like I could go ahead and say all I want now, but it was only a matter of time until class let out. Only so much runway until no one was looking. Wherein… he'd find me.

Even when he was handing the glove off, I found myself in a little strange and reluctant tug of war. And pretty sure it was just so he could catch my eye one last time. Make no doubt, he seemed to reaffirm, screw this up and I'll be coming from a thousand miles away- I will find you.

Luckily, when the kid came back with his dad a few days later that certain Bobby Dinero-eye-lock, the actual clenched fists and all that teeming ire dissolved in nothing less than confusion the moment I flipped him his mitt. Kid became wildly ecstatic. Exclaimed it was like an entirely new glove and when I mentioned he'd get a solid few more years out of it, he was quick to correct me with, 'Nope. This is my glove for FREAKING LIFE!!!'.

His father, not seeming much of a sports interested fellow, smiled for the first time as well. Maybe more in the relief he'd be off the hook for dropping yet another $300 on a brand new piece any time soon.

Kid's response was absolutely one of my most gratifying moments in the glove game so far. Hopefully there will be many more like this to come. But… maybe paired with a bit less “I want my 2 dollars” intimidation factor.

Common longterm snapping point of factory laces on Wilsons in the 'Pedroia style', occur at the mid bar of the web along the forefinger. This piece was no different. And the common solution, and often before the glove hits the field, is to replace the lace with a thicker gauge than the original, anemic lace it scurried in with. Did just that with red lace by Flatbill Baseball and at a wider width of 3.5/16" as well. That .5" extra than standard falls in the middle of 'standard wide' quarter inch lace that's generally only applied to the web. That mid size gives room for the possibility of lacing the entire glove with it. Stars were aligned in that manner with this piece, so's I did. Worked very well with the double stacked x's at the base of the glove without undo stress to the web and framing. Skived thin the lace in palm, close, thumb and finger runs. When skived, lace tends to stretch and end up a bit thinner than it begun. Neat thing about the mid-sized lace is that it ends up looking the width of standard lace when skived. Serves mighty swell in both aesthetic and tensile strength.

Gave the piece a deep clean and multiple stage conditioning with Ballplayers Balm products and shored up the pocket with a bit of oven-heated glove grease by GluvLuv.

For my own health and wellbeing, just glad I could come through for the kid.

Before and after laying flat.