Don’t Buy Your Kid Any Customized Baseball Gloves

My son, the one who I dreamed would be playing Major League Baseball someday, finally started to play baseball.  It’s a step above hitting off the Tee, but none the less, the thrill of being part of that dream is very much alive for me. That is, until we went shopping for a baseball glove.

My son, all seven years of him, has somehow decided that he needs one of those customized baseball gloves. I will be honest and tell you that I have no idea what these custom baseball gloves were until I began my research and even now, I’m not so sure I see the value in them .

A normal baseball glove is available at the local sporting goods store and even I was going to binge and maybe spend $50 on his first glove . He’s short and agile, so a first baseman’s glove didn’t compute . I pray nightly that he won’t want to be a catcher, so I never even bothered to shop for some of these catchers mitts. My thinking is that he’ll probably play the middle infield. Shortstop would be a good choice based on his size and with a weaker arm, maybe he would make a stab at second base.

He’s not built for third and besides, he needs much better upper body strength in order to make those hard throws to first. No, my choice is infield. He agreed with me, remember he is only seven years old. I’m told that as he gets just a little older , his agreement abilities disappear until soon I won’t know who he is. At this age anyway , I got some control .

None of the gloves in the downtown  Sporting goods store seemed unreasonably priced . All youth baseball gloves that seemed right for him fit into my $50 budget. The only problem is that he didn’t like any of them. Either the glove was too big or the color wasn’t right. Twice I steered him to a fine looking black glove , but he resisted. Finally, I asked him what he wanted and his response stuck in my heart like a medieval dagger  taking precision aim into my blood supply .

He wanted a custom baseball glove. Dumb me. I thought to make a ordinary  glove into one of the customized baseball gloves you wrote your name on the web . Maybe with a bright blue  marker, so it would look cool . It would be hard to miss and perhaps that glove would have some meaning because a future Hall Of Fame star had signed his name on it. Right. Am I a dope or what? 

When we arrived back home, he skipped the homework and went straight on line to the very expensive and in depth website. There, he had his choice of the Heart of The Hide baseball leather. I honestly didn’t know such things existed, so I sat down while the future short stop of our Little League began the demonstration.

Of course he would opt for the black and orange web design. The lacing would be important , he informed me. perhaps colors to match the laces on his next to be purchased, custom  baseball cleats would be appropriate. And his name? Of course it would be stitched inside.

I moved closer to the screen. A wide range of designs were available. I also saw different styles of web openings and read that the ball needs to come out rather quickly in order to gun down a fast runner . Would we want a standard wrist closure or perhaps one an adjustable fit ? A finger hood? What color ?

By the time we had designed our glove, I was in awe of the future, and considered that I may have missed several years of technology. Baseball gloves have really progressed  since I played the game and I was impressed with the style, colors and designs available. My son looked at me with hopeful eyes even as I shook my head, indicating no .

Not a chance I was spending $250 on any glove, much less a glove for a seven year old. Did i really think he was going to the majors? What was i thinking? I must be smoking something very strange to take me out of the sporting good store. My answer was final and he knew it, but in my mind I know how kids are and what powers they possess .

A week later he was sporting his orange and black baseball trophy , and customized baseball gloves don’t come any better looking that what he wore . The only problem was that it didn’t make him catch or field any better than the one within my budget, but thanks to his gramdmother , he was the talk of the team.