You kick them; you throw them; you even trip over them on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Here are some facts about balls.
TOSS UP
Centuries ago, balls were made from whatever materials that people had on hand—leather or linen and stuffed with reed, straw, corn husks, or even small pieces of metal. The ancient Mayans discovered how to turn the sap of several different plants into the spongy substance we now know as rubber. And they used it to make solid rubber balls.
But the strangest, most awful ball of all: throughout history, the heads of criminals and enemies were sometimes used as balls. Greeks, Romans, Anglo-Saxons, and many other cultures did it. It was the ultimate insult.
GOLF BALLS
The first golf balls were made of wood. Later they were made out of leather, stuffed with boiled chicken feathers. Today they’re plastic molded around a rubber core.
Around 1848 golfers realized that balls flew farther at the end of the day than at the beginning of the day. Why? They were all scuffed up. That’s when they started adding dimples to golf balls.
American golf balls made today have 336 dimples stamped into each little sphere. The number of dimples, plus their size and shape, can reduce wind resistance, give the ball more loft (height), and send the ball twice as far as a smooth ball.
Hike! A form of football was played in China as early as 500 B.C.
Every Major League baseball is sewn by hand, held together with exactly 108 stitches. Here’s how it’s done:
A baseball has a small cork core, which gets wrapped first with thin rubber bands, then with 369 yards of yarn. The hand stitcher then dips the ball in glue, places the “pill” (the glue-dipped ball) into a frame, and stretches two cowhide covers over it. The covers are pulled together with pliers and tacked into place. Last, the stitcher sews the covers together, using 88 inches of red cotton thread. It takes an average of five minutes to sew a baseball. What’s the life span of a ball in a professional game? About six pitches.
FOOTBALLS
The first footballs were round and were nearly impossible to throw, let alone catch. Over time they became more watermelon-shaped. Finally, the American football evolved into the perfect catching, throwing, kicking, and running ball with a very odd shape…and a very odd name: prolate spheroid.
In the early days, the football constantly leaked air, so the refs would stop play for 30 mintues several times each game while players took turns blowing up the ball. Today, each NFL team uses about 48 balls per game. Referees bring in a new ball for every kick and punt.
Softball was originally known as “kitten ball,” “mush ball,” and “diamond ball.”