illegal pitch

Rule of the Week: Baseball Lifespan

Hold a baseball in your hand. Feel its solid weight and smooth surface. Count its 108 careful stitches. Major League baseballs are hand-sewn in Costa Rica at a Rawlings factory that produces millions of baseballs a year. What happens to those baseballs? “The ball,” Rule 3.01 proclaims, “shall be a sphere formed by yarn wound…