Baseball in Ontario means your glove sits idle for four or five months. What you do in the week after your last game determines what you pick up in March.
Most gloves that come across my bench with cracked leather or brittle laces weren't ruined by playing. They were ruined by sitting.
Do this before it goes away
Get the dirt off first. Sand and infield clay hold moisture against the leather and grind at the fibres every time the glove flexes. A dry brush or a clean cloth does most of the work. Anything stubborn needs a cleaner made for leather — that's what Clean Inning is for, and it's the reason it lifts grime without stripping the oils already in the hide.
Then condition — lightly. A thin layer worked in with a cloth, not a heavy coat. Over-conditioning is a far more common problem than under-conditioning, and it's much harder to undo. If the glove looks wet, you've used too much. A tin of Soft Hands lasts most players several seasons, which tells you how little you should be using at a time.
Condition the laces too. They're thinner than the body leather and dry out faster. They're also the first thing to fail.
Fix what's broken now, not in March. A lace that's frayed in October will be worse in March, and everyone in the province wants their glove back the same week tryouts start. Winter is when a glove can actually sit with someone who repairs it.
Where to put it
The rule is simple: cool, dry, room temperature, out of the bag.
| Good | Bad | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A shelf in a heated room | Equipment bag | Traps moisture, holds the glove out of shape |
| A closet you open regularly | Car trunk | Temperature swings dry the leather out |
| A breathable cloth bag | Garage or shed | Uninsulated, wild humidity swings |
| Somewhere you'll see it | Attic or basement | Temperature and humidity extremes |
| Sealed plastic bag | Traps moisture, leather goes stiff and brittle | |
| Under a bed | No airflow, and you'll forget it's there |
Two Ontario-specific problems worth naming. Forced-air heating dries indoor air out badly between December and March — a glove sitting near a vent or a radiator is in a worse environment than most people realise. And an unheated garage swings from mild to well below freezing and back, repeatedly. That cycling is harder on leather than steady cold.
Holding the shape
Put a ball in the pocket. Beyond that, opinions diverge, and anyone telling you there's one correct answer is overstating it.
- Ball size — a baseball is standard. Some players prefer a softball or something slightly larger to keep the pocket from flattening. Infielders who want a shallower, quicker pocket often stay with a baseball.
- How you set it down — palm down on a shelf is the most commonly recommended position. Some coaches store gloves standing on the fingers instead. Either beats laying it on its side with nothing in the pocket.
- Wrapping — a band or wrap holds the fold. Snug is fine; cranked tight for four months is not.
What everyone agrees on: don't stack gloves on top of each other, and don't leave it flat and empty.
If you train indoors over the winter
Plenty of players are in a dome or a cage through the off-season, which changes things — the glove isn't in storage, it's in light use.
- A glove in regular use needs less intervention. Handling it is what keeps leather pliable. Don't condition it on a schedule; condition it when it starts to feel dry.
- Indoor facilities are dry. Turf and field house air pull moisture out of leather faster than a summer field does.
- Don't leave it in the car between sessions. A trunk in an Ontario February is a freezer, and freeze-thaw cycling is genuinely damaging.
- Bring it inside after every session rather than leaving it in the bag until next week.
If it's fully stored
Take it out once a month. Put your hand in it, work the pocket a few times, put it back. That's the whole job, and it does more good than any product.
That's also the argument for storing it somewhere visible — a glove in a closet you never open gets forgotten for five months.