An official Major League Baseball has three basic parts. It has the core or the pill, four layers of wool and cotton strings, and the cowhide surface. In this article, I am going to show you how you can take apart a baseball. However, if you know the construction of a baseball, then you can predict what you will see inside. In fact, Baseball is expensive sports equipment. Therefore, you can take apart a used ball instead of buying a new one. In case, if you have a used baseball with few broken seams then you may try cutting it apart, and see what is inside of a baseball.
Table of Contents
What’s inside a baseball?
Core or the pill
Since, you are wondering what’s inside a baseball. First of all, pill is the core of the ball. Secondly, two thin layers of rubber and the inside cork constitute the pill. The weight of this core is around half an ounce. The diameter of the pill is slightly less than three inches.
Strings
Four different layers of strings constitute the middle layer of a baseball. Layer one is a 4 ply yarn that has a length of 121 yards. The color of this layer is blue-gray. The manufacturers use an automatic winding machine to wind the strings at high tension. Layer one is the most voluminous string layer.
Layer two consists of a three-ply white wool layer with a length of 45 yards. The third layer consists of blue-gray wool yarn having a length of 53 yards. It is a three-ply yarn. Layer four is a thin layer of white polyester cotton mixed yarn. It is the longest string layer having a length of 150 yards.
The cowhide
It makes the surface of the baseball. After the windings of different layers of strings are done, the manufacturers coat rubber cement on the surface of the ball and cover it with two pieces of figure-8 cowhides. The workers stitch the hides by hand with 88 inches of red cotton.
How to take apart an official major league baseball
At first, you need to cut the seams or the laces around the ball. A baseball has 108 double stitches. After you cut all the stitches, you will be able to take apart the figure-8 cowhide cover of the ball. The manufacturers use glue to attach the hide on the outer layer of the string. When you detach the hide, you will see the yellowish adhesive that tightly keeps the hide attached to the inside strings. After removing the cowhides, you will see a ball made of white wool.
The next step is the removal of the stings. At the first layer, you will remove the white poly-wool string. The string is 150 yards long. Keep unwinding until you find a deep and dark 3 ply gray wool. This layer is comparatively less long as it is thicker. This layer is only 53 yards long. After unwinding this layer, another white layer of wool will appear. You will need to unwind these wools until you finish. Finally, another layer of gray carpet string will appear. Unwind until you reach the end. Finally, you will see a rubber ball. It is the core of the ball.
Subsequently, now you may cut the rubber ball and see what is inside of it. After cutting the core, you will see two different layers of rubbers. The outer layer consists of red rubber. In the middle, there is another layer consisting of black rubber. In the deep of the core, you will find a layer consisting of cork.
You can also watch this video to understand clearly.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQs)
What are the layers of a MLB baseball?
The standard MLB baseball has two layers of rubber, then three layers of wool, one layer of cotton, and the topmost layer is cowhide.
In between the layers is cement glue to stick them together. Each of these layers works together to keep the ball moving and accelerating as per regulation.
How much does a MLB baseball cost to make?
Even with high-quality materials, Rawlings spends about $7 to make one standard baseball, minus shipping. Since that is the cost of making one MLB baseball, we can use it for calculation.
There are about 2500 matches per year, with each match using 10 dozen balls. This means that 270000 balls are used in one season, with a total cost of up to $2 million.
Bottom line
In summary, these are all you will find inside of a baseball. The cowhide, wool yarn, and the core constitute the baseball. You only need a sharp knife to cut the stitches and the pill of the ball. Cutting apart a baseball is simple and easy if you follow the sequence I have shown above.
