Baseball, circa 1845

I'm putting the finishing touches on the latest revision of my forthcoming middle grade novel The Brooklyn Nine this week. The Brooklyn Nine is nine "innings," or generations, of an American family and their connections to baseball from the 1840s to the present. It's been a lot of fun to study up on both American history and baseball history, especially how different baseball was in its early incarnations.

The ball above is what baseballs looked like in the mid-19th century: dark brown/black leather, white stitches, and an 'X' seam pattern. A baseball like this plays an important role in The Brooklyn Nine, so I got one I could take on school visits with me for show and tell. I bought this one from an outfit called 19c Baseball, a company that specializes in 19th century baseball reproductions. Check out their site--it's a wealth of information about the early days of baseball. It's particularly interesting to read about the evolution of the baseball itself, and to see modern reproductions of them.

And check out the back of the ball--the 'X' seam doesn't meet on the back like it does the front, revealing the leather to be all one piece. Very cool!