To break in a new first baseman’s glove, Pete Alonso, the Mets’ rookie slugger, sat down at his Citi Field locker, slipped his left hand inside and punched the pocket with his right fist six times. He then paused to assess the mitt’s malleability.
“Just have to beat the hell out of it,” he said. “I don’t rush the process.”
He wasn’t done. He applied bat wax via a rolling stick along the glove’s inside. He sprayed Tuf-Skin, which is typically used as a tape adherent, on top of that. He scrutinized the laces before ambling out of the Mets clubhouse and into a hallway, where he picked up his bat and used it to pound the glove’s pocket 11 times.