A seam built from two pieces of leather
A baseball’s cover is made from two curved pieces of cowhide shaped like figure eights. They wrap around the ball’s tightly wound center, and their edges meet in a single seam that circles the surface. The red thread is not decoration laid on afterward: it is what closes the cover and keeps it snug against the core.
Why the stitching matters in play
The raised seam gives a pitcher’s fingers a firm edge to grip and push against when releasing the ball. It also disturbs the air flowing around the ball, affecting how the ball moves. A smooth cover and a stitched cover do not interact with the air in quite the same way, so the seam is part of the ball’s performance, not merely its construction.
The count refers to 108 double stitches along that seam. Repeating the same careful hand-sewing pattern joins the two panels while leaving the familiar raised seam exposed. That tiny ridge is why a baseball’s construction remains visible in every pitch: the stitching both holds the ball together and helps shape how it flies.
