New Glove
Treated myself to an extravagant pre-birthday gift today, something I’ve been coveting for years: a Nokona brand baseball glove.
In the spirit of sparing little expense on a recreational item that represents the height of its form, it’s kind of like buying a Rivendell bicycle, and in fact, the first time I ever heard of Nokona was through an article about the company in a Rivendell Reader, although it might have been a Bridgestone catalogue, I’m not sure.
In any case, it’s a beautiful mitt and smells just like I remember my hand smelling back when I was twelve years old and spent many an hour oiling up my Rawlings, a statement that sounds kind of salacious and is, I guess, in a certain pre-pubescent way.
I rode my bike to the sporting goods store, just like I did when I purchased my first relatively nice fielder’s mitt from that cramped store in downtown Pittsburgh that carried, among other items, the fabled Wilson A2000, which cost, at the time, the exorbitant price of something like forty dollars, which seemed crazy to me since my “finest in the field” was only like half that.
And while I wasn’t squandering my paper route saving this time around, this was money I could have put towards home improvement or my daughter’s education or even some much-needed new socks, but I’m justifying it by noting that it’s probably the last baseball glove I’ll ever buy, which is a kind of sobering thought if you think about it, so I guess I won’t.
Nokona advises you break in the glove mainly by using it, although they also recommend treating it with petroleum jelly. This is a lot less ambitious than painting it with neat’s foot oil, which is how I was taught to do it way back when.
Just like then, though, I stick a ball in the pocket, wrap the glove in rubber bands and sleep with it under my pillow.
In the spirit of sparing little expense on a recreational item that represents the height of its form, it’s kind of like buying a Rivendell bicycle, and in fact, the first time I ever heard of Nokona was through an article about the company in a Rivendell Reader, although it might have been a Bridgestone catalogue, I’m not sure.
In any case, it’s a beautiful mitt and smells just like I remember my hand smelling back when I was twelve years old and spent many an hour oiling up my Rawlings, a statement that sounds kind of salacious and is, I guess, in a certain pre-pubescent way.
I rode my bike to the sporting goods store, just like I did when I purchased my first relatively nice fielder’s mitt from that cramped store in downtown Pittsburgh that carried, among other items, the fabled Wilson A2000, which cost, at the time, the exorbitant price of something like forty dollars, which seemed crazy to me since my “finest in the field” was only like half that.
And while I wasn’t squandering my paper route saving this time around, this was money I could have put towards home improvement or my daughter’s education or even some much-needed new socks, but I’m justifying it by noting that it’s probably the last baseball glove I’ll ever buy, which is a kind of sobering thought if you think about it, so I guess I won’t.
Nokona advises you break in the glove mainly by using it, although they also recommend treating it with petroleum jelly. This is a lot less ambitious than painting it with neat’s foot oil, which is how I was taught to do it way back when.
Just like then, though, I stick a ball in the pocket, wrap the glove in rubber bands and sleep with it under my pillow.
posted by Professor Dave at 10:04 PM
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