2026. 8. 5. 22:48ㆍ취미생활/야구
Hello!
Today's post is about Rawlings, the company that makes the official baseball for Major League Baseball.
Every MLB game features the same repeating rhythm: a batter swings, a catcher fields, an umpire tosses out a scuffed ball for a fresh one. But have you ever wondered who actually makes that ball, and how?
As it turns out, a single company holds the exclusive contract to supply every official baseball used in MLB: Rawlings. And this company has grown alongside the sport itself for more than 130 years, making it a living witness to the history of American sporting goods.
Did you know that every official MLB baseball is still hand-stitched, one at a time?
Let's take a closer look at how a small fishing tackle shop grew into the company responsible for every ball used across Major League Baseball.
Origins
Rawlings traces its roots back to 1887, when brothers George and Alfred Rawlings opened a small sporting goods store in St. Louis, Missouri.
The original store sold everything from fishing tackle and guns to baseball, football, golf, polo, and tennis equipment. It's a pretty dramatic origin story when you consider that this general sporting goods shop would, 130-odd years later, become the sole official supplier of baseballs to Major League Baseball.
That first store actually burned down in a fire. Rather than give up, the brothers partnered with an investor named Charles W. Scudder in 1898 and moved into manufacturing. A setback turned into an opportunity.
Starting in 1906, Rawlings began supplying gloves to its hometown team, the St. Louis Cardinals - a relationship that would soon change the company's fortunes forever.
Key Facts
In 1920, Cardinals pitcher Bill Doak brought Rawlings an idea: add webbing between the thumb and first finger to create a pocket. That single suggestion became the blueprint for the modern baseball glove.
Doak patented the design and sold it to Rawlings, and the webbed-pocket structure soon became the industry standard. It's a fascinating reminder that one player's small idea reshaped an entire piece of sporting equipment.
Ownership of the company changed hands more than once. In 1955, rival Spalding acquired Rawlings and used it to manufacture baseballs, and in 1957 the company introduced the Gold Glove Award, still one of baseball's most prestigious fielding honors today.
An antitrust investigation later forced Spalding to sell Rawlings again, though the deal included a contract for Rawlings to keep making balls under the Spalding name. When that agreement expired in 1977, Rawlings began using its own logo and officially became MLB's exclusive ball supplier - taking over from Spalding, which had held that role for nearly a century.
Good to Know
Did you know that between 1977 and 1999, the American League and National League actually used different official baseballs? Since 2000, MLB has used a single unified ball across both leagues.
Every official MLB baseball today is made in Costa Rica, where more than two million balls a year are still hand-stitched, one at a time. It's remarkable to think that something so central to the sport is still finished by human hands rather than machines.
The leather side of the story matters too. The Horween Leather Company has supplied Rawlings with leather since 1929, and as of 2013, Rawlings gloves were reported to be the most commonly chosen glove brand among MLB players.
Ownership has changed hands quite a few times over the years. K2 Inc. acquired Rawlings in 2003, Jarden picked it up in 2007, and Newell Rubbermaid folded it into Newell Brands in 2015. Then in 2018, Rawlings was sold for $395 million to a group led by Seidler Equity Partners - run by then-San Diego Padres owner Peter Seidler - with MLB itself as a co-investor. These days, the people who run the sport also have a stake in the company that makes its ball.