Baseball is a classic all-American sport, so it is no wonder that millions of baseballs are manufactured and sold each year. However, each individual baseball has its own lifecycle that often extends far beyond how long we use and own them. These lifecycles factor in the waste that baseballs create which has an impact on our environment. In order to be responsible consumers, it is important that we understand the lifecycle of a baseball and what kind of waste one baseball can create — more specifically, a Rawlings baseball can create.
Before starting any game of baseball a baseball needs to be supplied. For Major League Baseball the official supplier of baseballs is Rawlings. Rawlings has been the official Major League Baseball supplier since , however the company itself has been in business since Rawlings opened its first factory in St.
Minor League baseballs are also produced in China according to journalist Ron Cervenka. It should also be noted that China is the main producer or baseballs world wide, producing approximately 80 percent of baseballs Broderick.
It is unknown how much of that 80 percent is attributed to Rawlings factory in China. This also means that there is another 20 percent left unaccounted for by my research and it is unknown how big of a percentage Rawlings contributes overall to baseball production. However, according to journalist Leslie Josephs, Rawlings factory in Costa Rica produces approximately 2. Now, this is a lot of information based on approximations, but it is important to quantify the amount of baseballs being produced in order to better understand the overall waste created by a single baseball.
As I have mentioned, 2. It should also be noted that, each company producing baseballs are more than likely using the same materials, so when looking at the waste created by the materials, the amount of waste is much larger than the waste created by Rawlings themselves. To make a baseball, cork, rubber, wool yarn, cotton yarn, polyester yarn, cowhide, latex adhesive.
Some companies use rubber cement but for Rawlings, latex adhesive is preferred. Sports Illustrated for kids provided great information on the production process of a Rawlings baseball- this will be a good place to start before digging further into each individual material used to make a baseball. After the leather has been treated it is then sent to the Rawlings factory in Costa Rica.
The pill is then coated in latex adhesive to allow the yarn to stick. The wool used to make the yarn comes from New Zealand sheep. The blue-gray yarn is then wrapped in 45 yards of fine white poly-wool yarn, followed by 53 yards of three-ply blue- gray yarn, and then finished with a layer of yards of fine white poly-cotton blend yarn. The baseball is then placed in a machine that rolls the ball around to compress everything.
The ball then spends the night in an air conditioned room before being stamped by a three headed stamp machine. The baseball is then shipped back to the United States and is sent to a secret location in Delware, New Jersey where it is rubbed with a special mud to remove any gloss — this will improve the grip of the baseball.
Now according to Sports Illustrated Kids around baseballs are used per Major League baseball game, and each individual ball only has a life span of about pitches. It is important to note that baseballs that do not meet the MLB standards are sold to the general public and these baseballs often last a bit longer, although my research was not able to find an exact lifespan.
As someone who grew up playing baseball, typically the baseball would last about a year or so. Now that we have a basic understanding of how the baseball is made, lets look a little more closely at each material used along this process. Roughly ninety million pounds of manure is produced by dairy cows a year according to Yale Environment The website provides great information about manure issues caused by dairy farms and the site states that although manure can be used as a fertilizer, the farms often use the manure as fertilizer, they often have much more manure than they need.
As a result, the left over manure is stored in lagoons. Another issue raised by the amount of manure produced by Holstein cows is that there are often issues with spillage where drinking water is contaminated and the manure also creates a nitrogen issue where the levels of nitrogen found in water makes it unsafe to drink.
This is only part of the issue according to the site, they go on to explain that in agricultural areas where there is heavy use of fertilizer, the drinking water also runs the risk of containing any pathogens, antibiotics, and hormones that the cows may possess. In addition, dairy cows contribute to green house gasses which has contributed to global warming.
Agriculture is considered to be the major producer of anthropogenic CH4, and most CH4 is naturally emitted by dairy cows during the microbial fermentation of feed components Gerber et al. Now, there is a lot to be said about the environmental impact of dairy cows, however, the main reason that this is being mentioned is because the main source of cowhide that Rawlings uses comes from Holstein cows and they receive the cowhide from many different farms across the Midwest and even from some areas in Canada according to Ohio State University.
Based on what information I was able to find; it is unclear how much cowhide is used by Rawlings. Another main component of the baseball is wool which is acquired from New Zealand Sheep. The same issue regarding waste and emissions is also seen with sheep so there is no need to re explain that issue. According to Sheep , one sheep can produce anywhere between two pounds to thirty pounds of wool.
Now when searching for information on how much yarn can be made from one pound of wool, there are mixed answers due to the fact that yarn can yield different weights. However, I was able to find from Weavolution , that five pounds of wool can produce about yards of three- ply yarn, which is about yards of yarn per pound.
Based on the findings from Sports Illustrated Kids, it takes about yards of yarn to produce one baseball. It should be noted that the weights of the yarn are all different so this number is by no means exact or correct, it is just an estimate. It was also found that baseballs are used per MLB game, which means that 48, yards of yarn or 9, pounds of wool - sheep - is wasted each game.
This is assuming that the sheep are all producing the maximum of thirty pounds of wool. Cotton based yarn is also used to make baseballs and the wool and cotton yarn is assumed to be produced by factories — no solid evidence was found on this however since Rawlings is a factory, it is a safe assumption that all yarn produced is mass produced.
With this assumption in mind the factories producing the yarn will also be contributing to emissions. Moving on to the rubber and cork cores of the baseball. Rubber is derived from a milky substance called latex. From here, to make the actual rubber that is widely used, the latex is then mixed with formic acid which causes it to coagulate.
Rubber sheets are then made and shipped off. Since rubber is in high demand, the recycling and reuse of rubber is very common according to HomeGuides. The recycling of rubber is more energy efficient that the actual production of rubber. Cork on the other hand is natural and does not cause any deforestation.
According to Catavino, cork comes from Oak trees and much like how sheep a shorn, the oak tree is also shaved. This process does not hurt the tree. The cork trees require little rain or nutrition which makes them slightly better for the environment.
The overall weight of the balls also dropped by an average of about a 0. But the timing of these changes to the weight and density of the core coincides with a much larger boost to the bounciness of the baseball.
According to a previous analysis performed by The Ringer, that increase in bounciness alone would add around 0. On top of the fact that the balls became bouncier as the core itself changed, previous research at FiveThirtyEight showed that they also became less air resistant. The decrease in drag is probably a result of a smaller, slicker baseball with lower seams. The change in air resistance could add an additional 5 feet to the travel distance of a fly ball.
Combine all these factors together — a lighter, more compact baseball with tighter seams and more bounce — and the ball could fly as much as 8. Asked whether these changes in combination could have significantly affected the home run rate, MLB declined to comment. In actuality, home runs spiked by about 46 percent between and , which means that the changes to the ball could account for more than half of the increase. The remainder could be reasonably chalked up to a philosophical shift among MLB hitters, who are likely swinging upward to maximize the number of balls they hit in the air and are not shy about the increase in strikeouts that may come with that approach.
On numerous occasions, he has said league testing found that baseballs continue to fall within the range that MLB designates as acceptable, and he recently said that MLB testing showed the balls to be fundamentally the same. In fact, in January of , Rawlings filed a patent application for a manufacturing process that would allow it to produce softballs and non-MLB baseballs 5 that were as bouncy as possible while still falling within the manufacturing specifications set by the league.
In those seven games, the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers smashed 24 homers , including eight in one game. In the wake of this power display, Manfred asked all 30 teams to start storing baseballs in a climate-controlled room and commissioned a task force of scientists and statisticians to investigate whether the ball was juiced in It gets its white color from the process of alum tanning which is done in Tullahoma, TN.
The cowhide is then shipped back to Costa Rica for the rest of the manufacturing process. The center is coated with adhesive and two pieces of cowhide, shaped like the number eight, are placed on the adhesive. Apr 5, Hey, luby! You should be able to pull facts out of this Wonder! NMyah Nov 13, May 21, May 8, Daniel Mar 14, Mar 15, Thanks for sharing your connection to this Wonder, Daniel! Mar 12, Daniel Mora Mar 8, I think it is interesting that Baseballs had a more tiny ball but with cork surrounding it.
That makes me think about what's inside a tennis ball. I also wonder how many stitches are on a baseball. Base-ball make a lot of that money. Mar 8, I never knew that you needed so much yarn to make a baceball. Feb 12, It's fun to learn new things!! Ashley Feb 6, I think it is interesting that baseballs have several layers. That makes me think about my Noreaster's team that i play on.
I also wonder where baseballs were made. Feb 11, Feb 14, Feb 5, What did you think of this Wonder? Dylan Mar 15, I love baseball!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mar 19, That's awesome, Dylan! What is your favorite part about baseball? We think so, too! Anton Jan 31, I never got first comment before this is cool.
Muhammad Jan 31, I always thought baseballs were made of yarn but I mostly play cricket. Theo Feb 9, Feb 13, Nathaniel Jan 31, Braeson,peckham Jan 31,
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