The Story of the Baseball

Friday, May 5, 2017

The 2017 MLB season is underway and the boys and I are headed to Cincinnati to see the Giants tonight. It looks like it will be a "lovely" evening for baseball -- I've got my raincoat, hat, waterproof boots, longjohns, and poncho ready to go!

 

I started thinking this week about the actual baseball and how it has changed over the years. 

Did you know that some of the original baseballs had sturgeon eyes as their cores? Nasty!

Then they went to a type of rubber which was a little too easily fractured. 

Then came the precursor to what is used in today's balls -- cork. 

In the old days, we had no standard for the size, weight, or color of the baseball. And teams made their own balls! As a result, there were periods of really "dead" balls and others of really "live" ones. Eventually we settled on the iconic figure-eight cowhide with red stitching -- 5 ounces with a 9-inch circumference. 

 

There was this one pitcher for the Red Sox who, like many pitchers, made his own baseballs -- and he had a pretty good pitching record, too. Once he retired he convinced the league to use only his balls and thus an empire was born. A.G. Spalding was his name. Baseball was his game. 

Things have changed regarding the number of balls used in a game, as well. Back in the day, baseballs were used until they started to come unraveled. Now MLB gets less than 6 pitches per ball. That's over 100 balls per game. 

So tonight as we freeze to death under the lights, maybe we'll catch a foul ball. And maybe we'll get an autograph!

Go Giants! Beat those Reds!