During spring training in 2013, when a Rawlings representative delivered two new gloves to Kansas City Royals first baseman Eric Hosmer, he tried on one of them and immediately smiled, feeling his fingers against the leather.
“This one’s a pearl,” Hosmer said.
Hosmer is particular about his gloves. He likes them really, really broken in — so that even if he flinches, the glove snaps shut. When he gets a new glove, he constantly punches the sole to soften the leather. When he stands in the field, it can look as if he were angry at the glove.