![]() ![]() The differences extended from the center of the core to the surface of the leather wrapping. Obviously, there was some variety in size and weight that resulted just from the nature of the handmade process and separate regional developments. In the 1840s and ’50s, it was anything but an exact science and pitchers often just made their own balls. In some regions, sturgeon eyes were used instead of melted shoe rubber. ![]() Like the football, it’s hard to attribute its invention to one person, especially considering that in those heady, mustachioed, pre-professional days of baseball, balls were made by cobblers from the rubber remnants of old shoes, with rubber cores wrapped in yarn and a leather cover – if you were lucky. But it didn’t start out that way. The baseball didn’t emerge fully formed when the first batter stepped up to the first plate. There’s no better evidence of that than the iconic white and red ball. With its pristine white surface and high contrast red stitching, today’s baseball is a beautiful union of form and function, an almost ideal Modernist object. From the fields and stadiums, to the uniforms, to the statistics, baseball is good design. ![]()
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