Melancon's youth team surprised with slick custom gloves

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Mark Melancon, a 14-year big league reliever and a 2021 All-Star with the Padres, was recently hired as pitching development coordinator at San Diego State. He’s also spending time coaching his son’s youth team of fourth- and fifth-graders in Coronado -- and that team received quite a surprise from the glovemakers at 44 Pro before a recent trip to Guadalajara for a tournament.

Melancon asked his team to design custom gloves for what he said was a contest. He’d send those designs to the Padres so a former teammate or two could pick a winner.

Instead, they all won.

Those designs were taken by 44 Pro and turned into real-life custom gloves for Melancon’s team. The kids were presented with those gloves by Melancon, after Jurickson Profar and Michael King had spoken with the team.

“It was just such a special moment,” Melancon said. “We presented the gloves to everybody. The kids were just going crazy, thought it was Christmas.”

The gloves were presented to his team at a pizza party near the 44 Pro headquarters in nearby San Marcos. Randy and Brent Habert, the father-and-son owners and cofounders of 44 Pro, spoke at the event.

“The generosity and the experience for the kids, being able to have such a cool glove -- I just thought it was pretty cool,” Melancon said.

Melancon, who retired after the 2022 season, was hired by SDSU in early October, taking on a behind-the-scenes role, involved in pitching development.

“I’m able to have an insight on the pitching staff and help coach [Shaun] Cole over there,” Melancon said. “It’s great because I can stay in it and have an impact, but it’s not on the field full-time -- more doing stuff in the background. It’s been great.”