Pater Familias

Theories, observations, and articles, by Philip Schaefer · All posts · Categories

NONUNIFORM BASEBALLS (COMMENT).

April 24, 2013 at 11:00 PM · Baseball, Sports

NONUNIFORM BASEBALLS (COMMENT). Carl Davidson commented on my post on how baseballs were made that the process could lead to imperfectly uniform baseballs. I think that’s right. It’s one explanation for why a pitcher would ask the umpire to take a ball out of play—the ball was very slightly flawed when it came from the factory. Although batters will object to a ball that was scuffed or marred on a previous play, it is thought that pitchers like balls that are a little beat up. Early Wynn was supposed to have strong enough hands that he could loosen the cover of the ball.