How to Pine Tar a Glove
April 12, 2009If you’ll remember back a couple blogs ago, I told you how much I loved pine tar. I used it on everything. Hold up, first a quick disclaimer before we get into all this…I’m not completely sure about the legality of tar and it’s uses (so it you get in trouble, don’t blame me)!
Here’s some of the things I liked about pine tar. It gave me and the pitcher a better grip of the ball. It helped me catch pitches cleaner because the tackiness of the tar in my glove eliminated the rotation of an incoming pitch, thus stopping it from rattling around once caught.
Maybe most importantly, I think tar is the best glove conditioner you can use. After a few applications, the goo will form a dark barrier between the leather of the glove and the pounding of a ball. This will prolong the life of your glove and keep it tighter.
Apply it to any portion of your glove that looks the slightest bit light, faded, dry, or roughed up. Especially the pocket area since it takes the most beating. And don’t forget the laces. This will eliminate premature tearing of the glove as well as give you all the benefits mentioned in the earlier paragraphs.
So here’s a step by step guide to pine tarring your glove…
1. What you’ll need….Good pine tar (very important…must be the super gooey kind, not the watery crap that is sold in most stores. I’ll try to find a brand name for you in the future). A glove. A clean rag that you can destroy (make sure your mom knows this rag isn’t coming back). Optional…a pine tar rag.
2. Turn the glove inside out.
3. Take the pine tar and apply it liberally to the glove. You can either do this by pouring directly out of the bottle or by using a pine tar rag.
4. Use your hand or the pine tar rag to massage the goop into all of the nooks and crannies of the glove… especially those areas that look dry.
5. Take the clean rag and wipe off the excess. Don’t wipe it all off, just clean it up a bit.
6. Turn the glove back to normal and lay it out in the sun till it dries.
7. Once the game comes, you can decrease the tackiness level by either rubbing it again with a clean rag or by touching the area with some rosin. That’s it, you’re done.
Here’s what the final product looks like after repeated applications. Note the two dangling laces that are normally used to keep your thumb in place. I preferred to leave them untied and to saturate them with tar. That way, I could just touch them with the fingertips of my right hand so I could get a better grip.
I hope this helps. More importantly, I hope I don’t get in trouble for sharing this with you. Good luck, have fun, and do me a favor….don’t get caught!!! Happy Easter.
A good chest cold with some thick loogies will work for a day if you are out of pine tar, but doe’s not have the staying power of the tar.
You are definetly sharing the tricks of the trade found nowhere else, me likes a lot!
Might try it. I used to use old black motor oil. Had to bake it in the oven a little at a time to get it dry. Don’t leave it to long though. That could get expensive.
So Brent –
I guess this is how Brian Bohannon managed to throw every single pitch, whatever it was he was throwing, 82mph and still manage to strike people out (occasionally). You were tacking the ball for him! All these guys you caught for should be sending you a stipend from their retirement checks.
[...] than just catching with it, right? Unfortunately, wrong. Outside of the suggestion I made of using pine tar, I don’t have a whole lot for you. I’d love to share some super secret big league trick [...]