Did you see this!

The stitching looks like hard work. According to my calculation, each stitcher stitches about 24 balls a day or about 3 per hour. I wonder how long people can last in that trade before their hands wear out?

Neat video Bob.

It only took one swing by Roy Hobbs to undo all that stitching:

Roy Hobbs

Very cool! GED10daD

very cool to see. is that factory in maine?

Very CooL!!!

quote:

Originally posted by 20dad:
very cool to see. is that factory in maine?

Sadly, our wonderful game is played at the sacrifice of workers in a poor country.

From the American Chronicle:

"Rawlings has been operating its baseball factory out of Costa Rica since 1988 as it gradually transitioned its factories from the country of Haiti during its period of government unrest in the late 1980’s. Since 1990, Rawlings has produced all of MLB’s baseballs in Costa Rica. It manufactures apparel and other equipment there as well. Its low-end baseballs are manufactured in China. And although Rawlings also contracts with the National Football League and the National Basketball Association in producing some of their equipment and balls, the baseball itself perhaps best symbolizes all-things-American and therefore is worthy of the attention it garners.

The approximate 600 workers at the baseball factory in Turrialba are either “sewers” who stitch the cowhide covers onto the baseball’s sphere, or they are assemblers and winders who are responsible for assembling the core’s parts, made of two kinds of rubber and cork, and the winding of the ball’s four different grades of yarn. Those who stitch are required to complete 108 stitches into the cowhide leather of each ball by hand.

Each sewer must complete one ball every 15 minutes. They are required to reach a minimum quota of 156 balls a week in a factory without air conditioning, in temperatures exceeding 90°, requiring permission to use bathrooms, and denying speaking between workers on the factory floor. The hours that workers put in average 11 per day and they must always reserve their Saturdays for the factory in the event an “emergency order” comes through. If not available on Saturday, they are terminated.

The gross wages per worker average $1.15 per hour. Workers can earn an additional $7.42 per week if they reach the threshold of completing 180 baseballs in one week. Baseball factory workers earn more than the country’s minimum wage but have not gotten an increase in the amount they are paid for each ball completed, for 15 years. Provided they reach the minimum weekly ball quota each week, they are compensated an additional 25-30 cents per baseball. Should they not reach the minimum quota they risk being fired.

The physical impact endured by the sewers has left one-third with carpal tunnel syndrome or repetitive stress injuries including permanent disability after just two or three years of stitching. And sadly, most MLB players have no knowledge that every baseball is made solely by hand under such conditions. Should a worker miss any length of time greater than a couple of days for illness or injury, they are easily replaced