ST LOUISE--Major league baseball players groan and sweat during spring training. So, it turns out, do major league baseballs.
The players have it all over the baseballs. The major leaguers stretch and twist and run under a warm sun, but the baseball's lot is to enter the Rawlings Sporting Goods Co.'s "torture chamber."
The balls are shot from cannons, pounded and squeezed--all to ensure uniformity and no rebuff any claims that "livelier balls" are the reason that someone's star pitcher is getting hammered.
"We definitely think we're producing the most consistent ball ever," said Scott Barton, an engineer for Rawlings, the exclusive manufacturer of the estimated 45,000 baseballs that we will be used in the major leagues this season.
Rawlings also provides teams with uniforms, catching equipment batting helmets and other gear, but it is the making of baseballs that is particularly difficult.
Welcome to the Torture Chamber
Rawlings is based in St. Louis, but the basic components of baseballs come from all over the world. Each component must satisfy quality control standards before the assembled ball enters the torture chamber.
Read more in Sports
Winter Season Moves InRecommended Articles
-
Living the Life of the National LeagueIt was a slow day yesterday at National League office headquarters in Manhattan, according to ex-Yale President A. Bartlett Giamatti.
-
Playing the Patriotic FieldToday, just after 1:05 p.m., Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler will sing the national anthem before Pedro Martinez throws the first pitch
-
ScoreboardTODAY'S GAMES Women's Lacrosse at Nationals. Women's tennis at Easterns. YESTERDAY'S RESULTS Celtics 102, Rockets 91, Celtics win series 4-2.
-
GOLD BASEBALLSThe members of the 1900 and 1901 baseball teams, both of which defeated Yale, will be presented with gold baseballs
-
1919 DORMITORY SERIES STARTSThe Freshman interdormitory baseball series will open on Soldiers Field this afternoon when Gore will meet Standish at 2.30 o'clock.
-
No HeadlineThe first impression that a visitor to the Trophy Room receives is a feeling of disappointment. The next is one
