Back when I used to play the game, I burned through a fair number of baseball gloves. You see, gloves grow old. And regardless of how well you manage to care for it, one day, it will require a replacement. When the day comes, the glove that you call your favorite today will become all but obsolete.
Now, I am the sentimental type and get attached to things quickly. You may say that it’s a bad habit, but it’s a habit nonetheless. And I don’t like to throw away any baseball glove that manages to last an entire season with me. Needless to say, my attic was close to overflowing with old junk gloves at one point.
Finally, after my wife had yelled at me for the umpteenth time to get rid of them, I decided to do something about it. Instead of tossing it in the trash bag, I decided that I wanted to display the gloves in all their glory. So, I took all the gloves to my basement workshop/man cave and went to work.
I was pretty happy with how everything turned out, and that made me want to share my experiences with you, my readers. And if you don’t want to get rid of your old gloves, perhaps my article on how to display baseball gloves can give you a better way to deal with them. So, let’s hop in.
Clever Ways to Display Your Baseball Gloves
There’s a story behind each baseball glove. Whether it’s your first high-end baseball glove that got you into the game or whether it’s the glove that helped your team secure the win, there’s something worth showing off with every set of gloves that you own. And if the thought of displaying your glove got you intrigued – well, there are a couple of ways you can do that.
There’s an easy method that doesn’t require too much effort on your end. And then there’s one that I like to call the “Fun” method, where you make everything yourself. I’ll talk about both approaches, but regardless of the one you go with, make sure to plan ahead.
Now I had a whole basement worth of space to work with when I was setting up my display area. So, I had a bit of leeway in where I wanted to set things up. If your space is limited, you need to think carefully about how you want everything to line up.
But more on that later. For now, let’s look at the two methods that I just mentioned.
1. The Easy Method: Get a Display Case
Now, when I say the “Easy” method, what I mean by it is that for this route, you don’t really need any craftsmanship skill on your end. There are plenty of display cases available for gloves that you can find in your nearby sporting stores or even online if you know where to look.
They are also pretty cheap, so buying a couple of them shouldn’t burn a huge hole in your wallet. If you have two or three gloves, getting a couple of these cases will help you display them. To spice things up, you can set up some nice lighting around the cases.
Display cases for baseball gloves have a glass covering with a metal or wooden base. Some cases also feature interesting designs such as grass carpeting or wooden varnish to make it look even more stylish.
But since it requires investing money, albeit not much, I don’t favor this approach too much. I’ll admit I have two display cases myself, where I display two of my all-time favorite gloves that got me through my high-school years, but for the rest of my gloves, I went with the other method that I’ll talk about in a bit.
However, my personal quirks don’t necessarily mean that you shouldn’t go with this method if you like it. It all depends on your taste, and if you think using display cases to show off your old baseball gloves works for you, then by all means, go for it. It’s undoubtedly a great way to showcase your collection of gloves.
2. DIY Method: Let Your Creativity Run Free
Now the DIY method takes a bit of skill to pull off. What I mean by this method is that instead of getting a display case for your gloves, you use your creativity to come up with interesting ways to showcase your glove collection. It requires a decent bit of skill, depending on what you are trying to do.
However, since the DIY approach depends entirely on your imagination, I won’t be able to paint you a complete roadmap here. But I will give you three easy but cool ideas that you might want to try and give you my two cents about them. Whether you want to use these ideas is entirely up to you.
· Diamond Wall Shelf
The diamond is where the dreams are made for a baseball player. And once your glove has left its glory days behind, it makes sense for it to return to the diamond for its final rest, right?
Well, you can easily make a DIY wall shelf that’s shaped like a baseball diamond to store your old baseball gloves. If you are decently skilled at woodworking and have a few handy power tools in your home, making a wall shelf shouldn’t be that difficult.
Of course, you can also hire a woodworker if you don’t want to do the grunt work – there’s no shame in that. You can also add a couple of glove holders if you want your gloves to stand upright on the shelf.
And since you are making the wall shelf according to your specifications, you can decide how big the shelf will be depending on the number of gloves you have in your collection. This is a great way to display your glove collection.
· Glove Frames
We all love paintings on the wall, right? Well, what if, instead of putting up wall paintings, you use your discarded old gloves to set up glove frames on the wall?
I have three glove frames on my basement wall, and I was scratching my head for a good number of hours when I was trying to figure out how to do it. For the frame, I decided to go with a small bulletin board with a black canvas. But I couldn’t decide how I was going to fix the glove on the board.
In the end, I decided to nail it securely to the board through the inside of the glove. It took a bit of careful maneuvering, but when I was done, it looked pretty nice. This is another simple way to showcase your gloves. If you have a bigger board, you can attach two or four gloves to it easily.
· Wall of Gloves
If you are like me with a huge collection of discarded gloves, then this is the coolest way to show it off. My wall of gloves is my pride and joy. And while it sounds intimidating, it’s pretty easy to set up.
Image Credit: pinterest.com/pin/42010209016282092/
First, I had to set up a wall frame where I could hang my gloves. For that, I went with a couple of wooden Ikea boards. I attached the boards to the wall using screws with around an inch of space between each board. This gave it a nice fence-like look that I was quite happy with.
Then it was a simple matter of installing a couple of glove holders on the boards with nails and placing the glove on top of them. Once you populate a wall with your large collection of gloves, it looks pretty darn awesome.
How to Make Your Baseball Glove Display Look Better?
If your baseball glove display, even after careful planning, looks a bit dull, then I know what you are missing – it’s the lighting. Lighting is a critical element in any artistic endeavor.
So, if you want to spice up the look of your gloves on display, consider adding a couple of ambient lights in the room and experiment with their positions. Also, make sure you clean your baseball glove properly before you put it on display. A dirty, unclean glove doesn’t look as pretty to the observer.
Final Thoughts
Some might say that going to such lengths just to display your glove is a pretty vain thing to do. But naysayers will be naysayers, and those of us who grow attached to our gloves know that there’s more to it than that.
To me, throwing away a glove feels nothing short of getting rid of a part of myself. Making them an aesthetic part of my room allows me to keep them around for longer, and they also serve as an amazing conversation piece.
I hope my article on how to display your baseball glove gave you a couple of nice ideas for what to do with your old gloves. Cheers!
