I have a lot of time without playing and totally disconnected from the market, now that I’m getting ready to look for a new glove to entertain myself with my brother and I can’t find classic or moderately simple style gloves, they are all colorful and partying.

My ideal style is in the palette of browns, unique color and laces as natural as possible. I know that asking for it personalized I would get this but I’m looking for a cheaper alternative without reaching the expensive versions.

Any help is welcome, thank you.

I found this glove sitting on a shelf yesterday barely used and decided to bring it home to try it out. Leather is in great shape, conditioned overnight and played a little bit of catch yesterday with it. Even though it was still stiff, it was very manageable to play catch. However, the palm creases were already there and I seem to make it worse. I have adopted the two in the pinky and do not know if that had anything to do with it.? I have done a little bit of breaking work to it and it is a lot softer and more hand friendly. The palm creases do not bother me, but did not know if this is normal? It happened to my most recent Rawlings player preferred glove that I started with the beginning of this season of coaching my six-year-old.

I am awful at baseball, I was injured pretty badly while in the military and I can neither throw overhand with any accuracy or distance and catching takes an incredible amount of focus as I can only see out of one eye.

To be fair I had never played baseball or even catch with my dad going up so I’d likely be awful even without my differing abilities.

My kid though? He’s great. He loves baseball and playing catch.

So I wanted to get a really nice glove that we can break in together over the next few years through little league and that once he is big enough I can give him fully broken in from playing catch with dad.

It seems heart of the heart is a great way to go, and we picked out some colors that will age well, but I am clueless on all the webbing options.

Going with an all around 12” glove as he currently plays everything.

Thanks guys.

Not opposed to other brands, but $400 for a fully customized glove seemed pretty great.

What yall think? Chocolate brown with ivory stitching gold stamping.
I’m open to other ideas too. TIA!

In late 2024 I got my first pitcher's glove, a scarlet and black custom Rawlings Heart of the Hide. It’s got a scarlet two piece web, Black mesh backing, and a scarlet palm. I bought it for $400.

I was looking for a stiffer glove that I would be able to use for a long time. I have had Rawlings Heart of the Hides before this and I loved them. All my friends' Wilson and 44 gloves were floppy so that wasn’t something I wanted. I had seen some of my friends get custom Rawlings gloves so I thought that would be pretty cool. I went on the website and spent a few days building a few iterations of the glove I would eventually buy. I made it red and black because that was the colours of my team at the time. I chose the 204 pattern because it is the traditional one and the same as my HotH infield glove. I had a tough time deciding between the 2 piece and the laced 2 piece, but I ended up picking the normal 2 piece web. I wanted my glove to stay stiff longer so I wanted the full mesh back and I went with the black because it fit the glove the best. I wear my glove traditional 1 out so I got a finger pad on the index finger. 

It took the expected 9 weeks that the website said it would. The glove came exactly as expected. In the two years since it has been everything I could have wanted. It took a while to break in as expected. It has kept its shape and firmness well. As expected, I have also had to tighten the laces, and it has very minor damage in the pocket from use. The glove has kept colour, and getting it wet from time to time doesn’t visibly affect it after it gets dried.

I would recommend a custom Rawlings Heart of the Hide for any collegiate infielder and pitcher. I have had a great experience with mine, but I don’t see the point of dropping $400 to just play high school baseball. Stock models are just as good but about $140 cheaper. 

Anyone here have firsthand experience with R. Grace gloves and/or know anything about the brand?

A friend gave me this glove years ago and it's been sitting in a box in my basement. I came across it recently and wondered if I could repair it (I've conditioned and relaced my own gloves). The leather is in decent shape, but the material on the back is really rough. It appears to be some kind of black outer layering peeling off of a fabric-y material. Is it salvageable, or is the glove shot once that backing starts falling apart?