# Making baseballs

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-baseballs/60539>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 2, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-baseballs/60539 "2001-04-02T20:26:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2001, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-baseballs/60539/1 "2001-04-02T20:26:27Z")

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A baseball has something like 106 stitches, looking a little like laced shoes. Unlike the shoes, you can’t see the knot. How do they knot it so it’s not on the outside?

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**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\
**Post date:** [April 2, 2001, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-baseballs/60539/2 "2001-04-02T22:57:06Z")

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It’s an ancient Costa Rican secret known only to a select few people who work for Rawlings.

Seriously, I don’t think it’s that hard to do. They’ve been making baseballs for well over 100 years.

Why don’t we see the laces on a basketball at all?