When I was little young I dissected a baseball to see how it was made. Since it’s been a long time, and I don’t remember it, I decided it was time to do it again.

The baseball before dissection

It took about 45 minutes to remove the red laces holding the leather on since I tried to preserve them as much as possible.

The baseball with the thread almost removed

The leather was glued to the ball underneath and had to be peeled away. Under the leather, the ball was covered in a thin, but strong, thread.

The baseball with the leather removed

Under one of the piece of leather, the letter “EOBRCO” were stamped. The Google had no results when looking for “EOBRCO baseball”, “EOBRCO Rawlings”, or “EOBRCO leather”. I assume they are a lot number related to the leather manufacturing.

Inside of a leather strip with the unknown “EOBRCO” stamp

After unraveling the thread, the ball was covered in a dark, thick yarn.

The white “floss” thread has been removed

Underneath the dark yarn was a lighter, thinner yarn.

The baseball after the dark yarn has been removed

Underneath the light yarn was more of the dark yarn.

The baseball after the light yarn has been removed

Finally, the rubber core.

The core of the baseball after the second layer of dark yarn has been removed

The core is very hard and has no bounce to it.

The core of the baseball next to a US quarter for reference

All the parts of the baseball

The whole operation took about one-and-a-half hours.

For my next project, I’m going to go all Humpty Dumpty and try putting it back together.

Just kidding.

Actually…that’s not a bad idea…