In late 1994, before my freshman high school baseball season, I got a new Rawlings Heart of the Hide PRO-TB24 Trap-Eze baseball glove…black Horween leather, tan laces, the classic red Rawlings logo, and the gameday model of Ken Griffey Jr.
It was my glove throughout high school, college, rec-league baseball after college, and even for rec-league softball. It served me well for close to 20 years until I stopped playing baseball and softball regularly. But after almost a decade of non-use, it was in rough shape. The leather was worn and a bit dirty, but still in pretty good shape. Only the deer-tanned cowhide inner, where your hand meets the glove was dried and showing surface cracks. The years of sweat and oils from my hand had taken their toll, so I was a bit concerned cleaning and conditioning wouldn’t do much to restore it. The original laces, however, were very worn, very dry, and in some cases barely holding on. This glove needed a good cleaning and relacing.
I started by removing all the laces, taking pictures to document, and noting the lacing pattern so I could redo what I had undone.
Once all the laces were removed, I cleaned the leather with saddle soap…palm, glove back, fingers, and inner…removing 30 years of baseball dirt and grime. Then let the glove sit until it dried, about 48 hours. I repeated that process three times.
Once dry after the third cleaning with saddle soap, I rubbed the leather down with Glove Doctor Baseball Glove Medicine Leather Conditioner, and let it sit overnight to dry. Then repeated the process with a second lighter rub down. The leather conditioner really infused some moisture back into the leather. I was extremely happy with how the deer-tanned cowhide inner responded to cleaning and conditioning. It feels incredible, even if it still shows 30 years of wear and tear.
It was then time to begin the process of relacing the glove. I ordered a Trap-Eze relacing kit from GloveDoctor.com, with original-looking natural tan laces to bring my PRO-TB24 back to its original look.
I had to throw in a few breaks to rest my hands and had to resort to some trial and error (and Internet searches) to get the exact path of the palm laces through the glove. But overall, it took me about six hours to complete relacing.
My PRO-TB24 looks great, not necessarily showroom fresh, but it should be good to go for another 20 years at least.
