The Museum: MLB American League Baseballs. The American League official game ball run begins with the Reach AL Ban Johnson era baseballs in 1901. AL balls were a lovely multicolor-laced – red and blue stitched – from 1901 through 1933. The league then switched to all-red laces with the 1934 Reach AL Pres. William Harridge ball. The switch to a single color of laces was purely for cost cutting, it’s been rumored (thanks, accountants!). Reach-Spalding combo-stamped baseballs took over for a short period in 1970 (Cronin), and one last Spalding-stamped AL (MacPhail) ball closed out the run in 1976. Rawlings won the MLB contract in 1977 and began branding all MLB baseballs that season. The company is the sole supplier of all official baseballs used in big league games to this day. Rawlings produced the AL-stamped game balls until MLB dissolved the individual AL & NL league presidents offices at the conclusion of the 1999 season. MLB then switched to a universal Rawlings ROMLB standard league ball in 2000.
1901–1927 B. Bancroft “Ban” Johnson. 1927–1931 Ernest S. Barnard. 1931–1959 William Harridge. 1959–1973 Joseph E. “Joe” Cronin. 1974–1984 Leland S. “Lee” MacPhail, Jr. 1974–1984 Leland S. “Lee” MacPhail, Jr. 1984–1994 Robert W. “Bobby” Brown. 1994–1999 Gene A. Budig (TBA!).
1901–1969 Reach American League (AL) Baseballs
1970–1976 Reach-Spalding American League (AL) Baseballs
1977–1999 Rawlings American League (AL) RO-A MLB Baseballs
The Rawlings Haiti ‘Dotted Dating System’ – AL Baseballs 1977–1984 (MacPhail): 1977 Rawlings AL 2-Dots (Centered). 1978 Rawlings AL 3-Dots (Centered). 1979 Rawlings AL 4-Dots (Centered). 1980 Rawlings AL 5-Dots (Centered). 1981 Rawlings AL 1-Dot (Centered). 1982 Rawlings AL 2-Dots (Right-Justified). 1983 Rawlings AL 3-Dots (Right-Justified). 1984 Haiti (Dating discontinued).
1977 Rawlings AL Blue-Stamped Variant MacPhail. 1990s Rawlings Pastime Collection AL MacPhail (Official Replica). 1993–1994 AL Brown. 1999 ALCS Budig – Final AL Official Rawlings RO-A Game Ball.
To Be Added / Photos Pending: 1980s Rawlings AL Bobby Brown “Haiti”. 1990–1992 Rawlings AL Bobby Brown “Costa Rica”. 1995-1999 Rawlings AL Gene Budig. 2000 AL Rawlings new logo Budig (Unused). Plus: More Pastime Collection Replicas.
Spalding originally purchased Rawlings in 1955. So we can deduce, at some point, Spalding’s Rawling division led baseball manufacturing for Spalding and like it Reach brand for a number of years. AL and NL balls with the Spalding and Reach stamps may have been produced by the Rawlings division as far back as the mid-1950s (source needed). Spalding’s run as the official MLB baseball supplier started to crumble as early as 1960. The United States Federal Trade Commission charged Spalding for a violation of antitrust laws as a result of the Rawlings purchase.
In 1960 the FTC ordered Spalding to divest itself of Rawlings. Spalding lost its court case in 1963 and resold Rawlings; it was soon renamed Rawlings Sporting Goods Company. But Spalding didn’t take baseball production back in-house, it subcontracted Rawlings to continue making the MLB’s official game balls until 1976. Spalding’s Reach American League baseballs suddenly switched branding in 1970, from just the Reach label, to a joint Reach label with “sewn in Haiti by Spalding” stamp. These were short-lived.
Rawlings won the MLB contract outright and began manufacturing its own branded balls for the Bigs beginning with the 1977 MLB season. Spalding and Reach logos would never appear on another Major League Baseball Official Game Ball. “This contract amounted to 30,000 dozen Haitian-produced balls a year” according to encyclopedia.com. And that number (360,000) did not including specially stamped All-Star Game and World Series Baseballs, which were first produced in 1978 and 1979, respectively.