The Secret History of Balls

You may fancy yourself a sports fan but chances are you don''t know: . A fish eyeball was used as the center of some nineteenth-century baseballs. The race to make better billiard balls led to the invention of plastics. The Nerf ball was originally created to be part of a board game featuring cavemen. Balls are the unsung heroes of sports. They are smacked flung dribbled crushed thrown and kicked. They''re usually only the subject of scrutiny when something goes wrong: a tear the application of an illegal foreign substance or a dent from overuse. Nevertheless if you''re watching nearly any major sporting event from around the world you''re likely following the ball wondering where it will go next.... The Secret History of Balls mines the stories and lore of sports and recreation to offer insight into 60 balls-whether they''re hollow solid full of air or stuffed with twine or made of leather metal rubber plastic or polyurethane-that give us joy on playing fields and in every arena from backyards to stadiums around the globe..