Baseball Buyers Guide
Types of Baseballs
Official Major League & Minor League Baseballs: are designed as game day baseballs for Major League or leagues where the Major League baseball is required. These baseballs are the best quality and have the best overall performance. These balls are also designed with wood bats in mind.
NFHS & NCAA College Baseballs: These baseballs are designed for high school and college game play. High School and College baseballs are not wound quite as tight as MLB, and they have a little less density too. These balls are designed with aluminum bats in mind.
Youth League Tournament Grade Baseballs: usually have the same quality leather cover as the high school and college baseballs with wool blend windings and a cushioned cork center core. These balls have less density than the high school and college baseballs but are considered high performance for youth league baseballs. These baseballs are designed with aluminum bats in mind.
Youth League Competition or Game Grade Baseballs: Competition or game grade baseballs usually have the same quality leather cover as the tournament grade baseballs with similar windings and composite cork and rubber or solid rubber center core. These balls have less "pop" than the tournament grade balls and are the most popular youth league baseballs. This is the standard baseball used by most youth leagues. These baseballs are designed with aluminum bats in mind.
Practice Baseballs: come in both leather and synthetic covers with a variety of windings and cores. Practice baseballs are generally less expensive than game grade baseballs and typically don't have as much "pop" or as good a cover as a game grade baseball.
Safety baseballs: come in a wide variety of covers and performance levels. Safety baseballs are typically for youth players from tee ball up through age 8. They are designed to protect players who are still developing fielding skills.
Baseball Features
Baseballs are measured in circumference in inches and weight in ounces. They have either leather or synthetic covers that are glued to the windings and stitched together. Leather covers are the traditional choice because they offer the best grip, performance, durability, and shape maintenance. Usually, the more expensive the ball, the higher the grade of the leather, and the better the cover and the process used to bond the cover to the windings.
Synthetic covers are usually vinyl and less expensive than leather covers. Synthetic covers vary in texture and grip depending on the quality. The high quality synthetic covers have a grip and feel that is close to leather. Synthetic covers resist dirt, maintain color well, and do not absorb water.
A baseball seam stitch comes in the following forms:
- Raised seams: grip the air well and offer the most control for developing pitchers. Fielders can also benefit by enabling a better grip on the ball.
- Standard or rolled seams: are not as pronounced as raised seams. They are sometimes referred to as major league seams because these are the seams used on Major League Baseballs. Standard seams are used by all age levels and can be used in many pitching machines.
- Flat seams: baseballs are rarely used in game play unless mandated by a specific league. Flat seamed baseballs are ideal for use with pitching machines.
Baseball Windings and Cores are traditionally constructed with wool or cotton thread wound tightly around a center core, although, some low end baseballs do not have windings but only have a solid composite cork and rubber center. The windings and core is the key to the performance and durability of a baseball.
Tournament grade and higher baseballs have cushioned cork cores. Cushioned cork cores consist of a cork ball wrapped in a thin layer of premium rubber. Cushioned cork cores are the densest and have the highest performance. Lower quality balls have cores made of either solid rubber or a composite of ground cork and rubber.
Wool blend windings are the most common. Wool windings have the highest compression and shape retention characteristics. The higher the quality of the ball generally the greater the percentage of wool used in the windings and the tighter the thread is wound around the core. Higher quality baseballs retain their shape longer and have higher performance. | | |
Matt Murton on how he breaks in his glove
