Baseball glove repair and relacing is what Doctor Glove is all about, and for over 25 years people have been relying on him to give new life to their old baseball or softball glove. Doctor Glove, who is known as "The Best Friend Any Baseball Glove Ever Had," recently talked about
art and craft of baseball and softball glove repair."When it comes to glove repairs, I like to think I can fix anything and everything. I haven't been proved wrong yet, but I guess there's always a first time," Doctor Glove laughed. "Over years I've been asked to fix just about every imaginable type of problem in a glove - but I'm careful to say that I haven't seen everything yet because every time I do, someone brings me a glove that's been 'critically injured' in some new way."
Doctor Glove has an almost cult-like following among his loyal client base in Southern California, but thanks to his website (http://www.DoctorGlove.com) he also gets gloves shipped to him from all around world.
Relacing, sometimes called re-stringing, is most common need, says Doctor, because rawhide laces used in gloves only last for a few seasons before weakening, stretching and breaking. He said, “Most of rips and tears I see in gloves happened because owner had worn-out, stretched laces and didn’t replace them when he should have.”
When asked about glove repairs, Doctor Glove said, "I fix a lot of routine problems like rips and tears, or maybe some stitching that's come undone, or maybe someone wants to replace original padding or put in additional padding. Some clients come to me complaining about their glove being limp or ‘floppy,’ and most of time that’s because plastic inserts that are in thumb and pinkie padding have broken. I make a new plastic insert and ‘bingo,’ that problem is solved – I’ve put ‘snap’ back in their old glove.”
"Many of my clients have been using their glove for 10, 20, 30 years or more and would not dream of buying a new one. Maybe it was a special gift, or maybe it was handed down from father to son, or maybe they wore that glove in a championship game, or it has some other special memory associated with it. People become attached to their glove same way some people become attached to their old cars - it would kill them to get rid of it," Doctor said.
The Story Behind The Slogan
Doctor Glove’s slogan is “The Best Friend Any Baseball Glove Ever Had,” and he told story behind slogan. The Doctor said, “I've fixed a lot of gloves that were chewed up or mauled by dogs, and I’ve been telling people for years that dogs may be man’s best friend, but they’re also his glove's worst enemy. Well, after I fixed a glove for a guy whose dog had eaten wrist strap and webbing of his favorite glove, guy said, “If a dog is a glove’s worst enemy, then you’re a glove’s best friend, in fact, you're absolute best friend any baseball glove ever had!”
Customizing Gloves: Strengthening and Additional Finger Lacing
Doctor Glove talked about another specialty of his work, customizing gloves. "I do a lot of 'custom strengthening' work – that’s when owner feels his glove is too weak or flimsy and thinks lacing will break too easily, even if glove has new laces. A lot of glove manufacturers use 3/16 inch laces in places where they really should have used 1/4 inch laces, which are much, much stronger.”
