I know a guy who learned the words to the National Anthem by watching baseball games on TV. He thinks the last two words of our country’s song are “Play Ball.”

With the World Series coming up, I wanted to know what is inside a baseball. This picture from our friends at Rawlings Sporting Goods does a great job of showing how they make baseballs.

You start with a round cork center — just like the cork you might have on a bulletin board in your room.  The cork is covered with two layers of rubber - a black layer and then a red layer.

Now they take yarn-like wool and wind it around and around. First it’s 121 yards of grey wool. Then that’s covered with 45 yards of white wool. And the last wool layer is 53 yards of grey wool. After that’s it’s 150 yards of cotton yarn. All of the yarn winding is then sealed with a layer of Rubber Cement.

Then for the part we’re used to seeing on a baseball, they take cowhide leather and sew it on using 108 stiches of red cotton yarn.

Let’s go Play Ball…!!!