It is always necessary for a player to take care of regular using equipment of their game. And a baseball player has to pay more attention to the fact. If you want your baseball equipment to last longer, you should learn not only how to properly clean a wooden baseball bat but also your baseball gloves or your batting gloves. That’s why in this article, I will give you some easy method on how to clean a baseball batting glove.
There are so many ways to clean your baseball batting glove. Most of the methods are similar to each other. Briefly, I can say a few steps that are always necessary. Firstly for removing dirt give clap with two hands. Secondly, you need to clean the visible hard dirt using a brush or a stiff cloth. Thirdly for more cleaning use wipe that’s only for leather to clean the absolute grime. Then make a cleaning mixture and use a rag to clean the glove using the mixture and finally rinse your baseball batting glove with cool water and hang it outside for drying up naturally.
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Why should you keep your batting glove clean?
Everyone wants a good outcome of his or her investment whether he or she invest in his or her business or investment in a material. Even you have to invest a good amount for a good batting glove. Everyone wants a long lasting baseball batting glove.
The first condition to make a batting glove long-lasting is to always make it clean. Instead of cleaning it once after a season cleaning it once after a practice increases the lifespan of a glove. Besides with a sweaty dirty glove, anyone feels uncomfortable to play wearing the dirty one.
The regular dirt, moil, mud sweat create a fetor into your glove that’s very odd to smell. Besides, you will get more inspiration while wearing the clean equipment. So it is really important to keep your batting glove neat and clean.
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Necessary admixture and ingredients to clean you batting glove
Clean and dry cloth, lukewarm water, brush, leather cleaning wipes, alcohol-free detergent, soap, rag, washing machine (optional) etc. These mixtures and apparatus are used generally for cleaning up your batting glove.
How to Clean a Baseball Batting Glove: First Method
There are generally two types of gloves. Leather glove and synthetic glove. Synthetic gloves are both machines and hand washable but leather gloves are only handing washable. I am showing both methods of washing.
Washing a Leather Glove
Shake or clap your gloves together: After a game or end of the practice when you put off your gloves give a shake to your glove. There you will see the stick-up muds, sand, and dirt dropping out. But the easy way to remove them is to make a loud clap. Clap your glove together and you will be easily able to clean up the unwanted extra dirt.
- Don’t keep your hand nearby your face while clapping. The dust will enter inside you through your nose or your eyes can be affected by the dirt.
- It’s safe to shake or clap keeping your gloves along with your knee.
Remove the visible dirt with a brush: Clapping your glove decreases the sand and mud but you will get much visible grit and dirt on your glove. For that, you need to use a brush. Slightly rub the glove along with the glove mainly on the portion which looks dirtier. Keep doing this rubbing for a short period.
- Don’t rub the brush harshly on your glove. That will cause harm to the glove.
- If you don’t have a brush you can use a dry stiff cloth to complete this step.
Wiping your batting glove: Leather cleaning dissolvable pad is very helpful for wiping your glove. If you want a spot cleaning then you can quickly do it with this leather cleaning one time wipe. Never use baby wipes for cleaning your baseball batting glove. Select those wipes which are specially made for cleaning leathers.
- Avoid wipes which contains alcohol. It will be very harmful to the glove.
- Do not use the wipes which are not appropriate for cleaning leather.
Make a cleaning mixture to clean the glove: First, you need to make a homemade mixture. Take some lukewarm water in a bowl or a big cup. Then add 2/3 drops of detergent into the water. It will mix automatically and you will get a solution of cleaning agent. Take a rag and dip that into the solution. Put it out and start rubbing your gloves gently. Rub it everywhere on the glove especially on the fingers, and corners. Also, rub the rag inside the glove.
- Must be careful about the fact that the detergent you use to make the solution need to be alcohol. Alcohol causes harm to your glove.
- Don’t wipe your glove hardly on the glove.
- Don’t forget about inside the glove.
Rinse the glove properly: Now put your glove into the running water. Rinse them to remove the suds. Don’t wash it extremely. Also, take care inside the glove if it carries extra suds or not.
- Must be careful about the fact that the detergent you use to make the solution need to be alcohol. Alcohol causes harm to your glove.
- Wash the glove very carefully every portion of it. Don’t let any suds remain into the glove
Dispel extra moisture using a dry cloth: Look after about this fact if you get over wetted. Don’t hang it outside like this condition. If you feel the glove extra wetted then use a dry and clean cloth. Rub on the glove that will soak up the extra moisture of the glove.
Air dry the glove: After cleaning up it’s time to air dry the glove. Hang your glove outside and let it dry up itself naturally. Sometimes we get the weather rainy then you shouldn’t let it get drenched into the rain. You can use an electric fan for drying up your glove.
- Don’t let it dry up to the direct sunlight.
- Always obey the instructions about the time you need for drying up. Some gloves take a few hours but some take about a day.
Applying conditioner to the glove: When you will get the glove dry then you have to do the final step. Conditioning the glove is very important. Use any leather conditioner that is for baseball gloves to conditioning your batting glove. Take a cloth and rub a little amount of conditioner on the glove then take another clean cloth and wipe the conditioner through the whole glove.
Here your leather glove is ready for the next game.
Washing a synthetic glove
Follow the instructions about machine wash: Synthetic gloves can be easily washed in the washing machine. First, check out the glove packet if there is any instruction about washing.
Apply the function cold water and no bleach detergent: You shouldn’t wash it with warm water. Use the function cold water and use only no bleach detergent to wash it. I am suggesting you use an antibacterial denture cleanser tablet while washing. This will remove the odor of your glove.
- Don’t use warm water or bleach or fabric softener.
Air dry the glove: Air dry your glove like you do a leather glove. The glove is machine washable but you can’t be drying it up via machine dryer or using an iron. It will shrink your glove. So keep away from them.
How to Clean a Baseball Batting Glove: Second Method
Brush your glove to remove dirt: After a match, the glove remains full of dirt and grit. First, you need to remove the dirt and for that, you can use a dry leather cleaning brush. Brush all over the glove gently.
- Don’t brush your glove harshly. It will cause harm to the leather.
Apply cleaning agent to the glove: If you can buy any cleaning agent like horseman one step then you don’t need to make any homemade mixture like the past method. Apply a short amount of cleaning agent to the glove and rub it smoothly with a clean cloth.
- Don’t overuse the cleaning agent that will fill up the pole of the glove.
Drying up the glove: First, remove extra moisture of the glove using a dry clean rag. Then let the glove dry up naturally. Air dry is the best way to dry up any glove. Wait for the proper time to conditioning the glove.
- Don’t hang it on the direct sunlight
- Wait for the proper time to dry up.
Conditioning the glove: The last step is to applying conditioner to the glove. Take a little amount of conditioner with a rug and rub it all over the glove and then wipe it very carefully. Also, wipe it inside the glove.
- Don’t overuse the conditioner
Here your batting glove is neat and clean.
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Best cleaning agents in the market: Most of the people use leather cleaning agents for cleaning their batting gloves. But all the cleaning agents aren’t appropriate for cleaning a baseball batting glove. So I have some suggestions for you about cleaning agents and conditioners.
- Lexol is the best one for cleaning and conditioning a leather glove
- Dr. Glove is especially for a good break in. Also great as a conditioner.
- Horseman One-Step works well on leather and lets it away from cracking
- Goo Gone can remove sticky grit and dirt from your batting glove quickly.
These cleaning agents can be found in any leather shop. Even you may find in the local market.
How to store your baseball batting glove?
It is futile to clean a glove if you are not aware of storing a glove. During the off-season or when you are about to a long vacation you need to clean and store both. Most of the people do not know the proper way to store their gloves. I am briefly describing the storing of a glove.
Keep it dry and cool: The first this you need to look after whether the glove is dry or not. Before storing make sure the glove isn’t wet.
Always keep the glove stored in a cool place. During winter home temperature is enough to store your glove. But make sure that you don’t put the glove or equipment bag near a fireplace. Besides do not put it outside at zero temperature.
Do not gather so many types of equipment together with your glove: Do not create a big pressure on the glove. As an example don’t heap up other equipment like a bat, helmet, and others with the glove. That will change the shape of the glove. So take care of this fact while storing your glove.
Tight and repair broken laces: While storing the glove always tighten you finger and web laces again. And also check out the laces if any of them is broken. If you find like that the repair the lace as soon as possible.
These are the most important impacts you should always look after before storing.
There are some rules you should maintain to keep it clean: Never spit on your glove. The saliva causes a reaction with the material of the glove and that farms your batting glove. Always avoid the unwanted and inappropriate cleaning agents and conditioner. They will decrease the lifespan instead of increasing the lifespan of your glove. Besides two things you need to maintain.
Firstly, you should rub or wipe it very gently. A rough wipe damages the leather and uses the right amount of cleaning agents and conditioners. They will enter into the pore of the leather and causes harm to your glove.
Secondly, you should clean your glove regularly.
Hopefully, you will get all the information about how to Clean a baseball batting gloves. So from now on always keep your batting glove neat and clean and make a good performance
