As I sat there watching the pitcher and the infielders warm up between innings, out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of the coaches was outside the dugout trying to get someone’s attention. When I realized it was my attention he was trying to get, I nodded. He then he yelled: “I have another one!” and he proceeded to throw me a fielder’s glove. I caught him, gave him a quick inspection, and learned what he was up to a little later that night.

Well, that’s how it’s been for the last four or five years when I’m in the dugout or at the local baseball or softball fields. I have repaired gloves for several players and have therefore been tagged as “The Doctor”. Word has spread over the years and I’ve fixed many gloves for little kids, big kids, adults, you name it. I never realized how much people liked their gloves and I also didn’t realize that people didn’t repair their own gloves when they broke, even the simplest of repairs.

That’s how this all started for me. One day I serviced an old Wilson A2000 from the late 70’s or early 80’s. It was being used by a younger girl who played softball. It was her father’s glove from college. She needed a lot of lace work, but other than that she was in surprisingly good shape. He looked great when I was done.

Since then, I have repaired gloves for many children. He never charged anything, which was probably a small mistake. I was happy to return the glove to them the next day or so. I didn’t think much of it until I was searching the internet about a year ago and saw what it costs to repair gloves in both money and time. Only then did it occur to me how much money I saved kids and parents and more importantly the glove was lost during one game at most.

This is what I mean. If you have young children who are active in baseball/softball or are a member of a team or teams, you really should try repairing some gloves yourself, in your spare time. Trust me, it will come in handy more times than you think and can save you and other people some money.

Let me define what I mean by glove repair. I’m not talking about repairing big tears in the leather and small seams in the glove. That material requires more tools, leather, and time. I’m talking about repairing the most common types of lace tears that occur over the course of a season and simply reseating these tears or retightening the laces to keep the glove in its original shape and form.

About two months ago, at one of my son’s tournaments, the third baseman’s glove broke, right in the net. As you know, tournaments have a lot of games, so these guys don’t want to lose a glove for a week while paying to have it repaired. Anyway, I took the glove and fixed it between two games. I just went back to the hotel room, turned on The Weather Channel, and reconnected to the bottom of the web. It took about fifteen minutes and the glove looked great. He lasted the rest of the season with no problems.

Now, if you had sent the glove in for repair, a repair like this would probably cost you between $15.00 and $35.00. This would be higher if you wanted to get the glove back sooner. He would probably also lose the glove for a week. If he got the glove back and didn’t like the results, he’d probably live with it. It wouldn’t be worth sending it back.

If your mom, dad, or someone else were to repair it (in this case I did), the cord required for this would cost between $2.00 and $5.00. I would only lose the glove for about fifteen or twenty minutes, no real downtime! Any more tweaks would probably be done by whoever fixed it.

If more laces break, it’s more expensive. The change of the entire glove costs around $50.00. You also have to pay shipping on top of that. Also, you will lose your glove for a week. It really is a huge benefit to know how to do most, if not all, shoelace repairs yourself. If you have young children playing ball and see a good number of years ahead of you, or if you’re a coach, learning how to restore, condition and change gloves in general is a great thing.

I’m not saying glove repair places are bad. They’re great! Most do a good job and will keep your glove for years to come. I even recently found a site on the Internet that offers a very good offer, with a response time of one or two days. Of course, if they had 75 gloves, that’s a tough guarantee. Basically, you just have to decide your budget of time and money. For almost every glove I’ve repaired overnight or in ten or fifteen minutes, time was the big concern for kids and parents, not money. They wanted their gloves for the next day.

Look at this glove: it looked old and beat up when it was given to me. After some basic repair work, it looks great!

Spalding baseball glove

So if you have the time, find some old gloves or buy a pair at a garage sale and try retying them. It’s really not that difficult. And most breaks are very similar, especially with today’s gloves. Once you do two or three, you’ll be on your way to becoming a “Doctor.” You will be able to make glove repairs in one entry and the child will be able to wear the glove in the same game! That’s the cool part. You make many children and parents happy.

There is also another part of having this ability. You can earn a little money for yourself by doing this. In fact, you don’t have to be a coach or even have a kid playing. Once word gets out that there is someone locally who can repair a glove overnight or in a day, people will find it. Trust me.

They found me, and still find me all summer five years after I thought to repair this glove for a young softball player.