Meridenite of the Week: David Katz

You can find David Katz at his shop, tweaking one of the hundreds of baseball gloves that hang from the walls, or maybe he’s picking through some Zeppelin on his old, white Fender Strat. He might be sitting by the pool at home, breaking in one of the mitts that he plans to sell at a tournament next weekend, or maybe he’ll be watching a Yankee game on television, reminiscing about the famous centerfielder he once coached. He’s always surrounded by baseball.

Katz played the sport as a kid growing up in Meriden, through his time at Platt High School. He’s been selling gloves at Katz Sporting Goods since 1975 when he took over the shop from his brother, Rich, a former minor leaguer in the Baltimore Orioles system.

After a few months of running the store, Katz came up with the idea to sell broken-in gloves. He didn’t tell customers at first, instead letting them try the gloves for themselves. Predictably, they picked the ones he had worked on.

“Now no one walks out of here with a glove that I haven’t broken in,” Katz said.

People can buy an already-softened mitt directly from him, or they can send in a glove they bought elsewhere—one they can’t seem to get right on their own.

“Most of the gloves I get are a year or two old,” Katz said. “People try other methods: sleeping on it, stomping on it, shaving cream, baking them in the oven…None of ‘em work.”

As for his method, well, he’s not going to tell you. He broke into a full-on cackle when asked for it. 

Too often, Katz said, he’ll get someone coming in or calling with probing questions and no intention of sending in a glove. They want his secret.

“I’ve worked my whole life to build up this knowledge…I can’t just hand it over like that,” he said.

His expertise goes beyond breaking-in gloves—he also makes them.  Katz will proudly tell his customers that he designs the patterns and laces, then picks out the leathers before sending the specs off to Asia for manufacturing.

The mitts, adorned with a Katz logo, have been everywhere from Meriden Little League to the majors.

Former New York Yankees centerfielder Bernie Williams never used a Katz glove—he was nearing the end of his career by the time Katz started to make them in 1999—but he knows the brand from experience.

Williams, just 16 at the time, was attending a camp at nearby Cheshire Academy in the summer of 1984 when a counselor recruited him for his Hartford Twilight League team, a team run by Katz Sporting Goods. Katz would drive Williams, along with an outfielder named Darrell Hughes, from camp to the games two or three times a week.

Katz, managing the team, said that Hughes stood out and deserved playing time immediately. Williams—a five-time major league all-star with four gold gloves to match his four World Series rings—sat the bench.

Williams remembers that summer well, said Katz, who caught up with him at a Yankee game in Toronto several years ago. Katz keeps a picture of the meeting on a wall in his store, hung next to dozens of letters and news clippings praising his gloves.

“He remembered all the guys, their names,” Katz said, referring to Williams. “He also said, ‘I remember being frustrated because I didn’t play much.’”

Katz also recalled hearing a rumor that Williams had wanted to bring a friend, Juan González, with him from his native Puerto Rico. González would blossom into one of the 1990s' best hitters, winning two American League MVP awards for the Texas Rangers.

“I probably would have sat him, too,” Katz laughed. “I could’ve had two all-stars sitting on my bench.”