Expert: Tom Schott - 6/29/2008

Question
My dad who saw all the greats said in the 40,s the ball was dead and that their was less rubber in it. True or   false?

Answer
False.

http://www.fogdog.com/fog-the-history-of-the-baseball--bg-527303.html
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/whatstuff/stuff/7713scit3.html
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=235658
http://www.pennridge.org/p/p-baseball.html

have information on the history of the baseball. They were machine-made from professional baseball's early days. That is the horsehide (and later cowhide) is cut and the rubber-encased cork center is wound with yarn by machine. All baseballs are hand stitched. Standards for the technical specifications of the ball got set fairly early on. Beginning about 1920 (the end of the "dead ball" era), improvements in the manufacturing process and a new type of yarn developed during the Great War resulted in the lively ball we are familiar with. The rubber encased cork center has not changed for over a hundred years.