Where gloves go to heal: The art of Cudjoe's Glove Repair

For baseball and softball players, their gloves are everything to them, so much so that some players won’t play unless they have their special glove. So, when they get old and worn, that’s the time to call the glove doctor.

“You don’t want to use somebody else’s glove, you want to use yours. So, I’ll get it, fix it, and if I have to meet you some place, then I’ll do that,” said Tagzmin Cudjoe, owner of Cudjoe’s Glove Repair.

For Cudjoe, also known as TC, it all started while playing baseball in college, when their star player’s glove ripped.

“So, I took the shoestring out of his shoe, took a clothes hanger off the back of the rack. I didn’t know what I was doing, I just knew we needed him back in the game,” said Cudjoe.

Forty-five years later, He’s the glove doctor, repairing gloves in his living room for people from all over the world.

“I will take them completely apart, clean them, condition them, oil them, and then replace them,” said Cudjoe. 

And he’s never met a glove that he couldn’t repair.

“Some of them come in and are so damaged that you can’t put your hand in it, so I rebuild the inside completely,” said Cudjoe.

“Hey, I want to send you some pictures of my father using that glove, and his grandfather was pitching in the 1961 World Series, with the New York Yankees, with that glove on, and it was sitting right here on my desk,” said Cudjoe.

He’s even unknowingly repaired gloves for future superstars, like Eli Willits, the number one pick in this year’s MLB draft

“His uncle knows me, and I’ve done a few gloves for his uncle. Well, Eli was playing in a tournament some place and his glove breaks,” said Cudjoe.

Eli was a freshman in high school at the time, and TC has been repairing his gloves ever since. So, after the big announcement.

“I went, that’s the young man’s glove I’ve been working on,” said Cudjoe.

And then the text alert on his phone.

“His uncle sent me a text message. Are you looking at draft? And I said, 'yeah, I was just getting ready to text you,'” said Cudjoe. 

And like every other Oklahoman, TC is proud of the high school kid expected to be the next big thing in major league baseball.

“Knowing that you’re a little bitty, tiny part of it, it feels pretty good,” said Cudjoe.