How does Rawlings make their baseballs so glossy?  I have found
several articles about their manufacturing process, but none that say
if they add a coating to the outside to make them so slick.  I have
read that the sewers moisten the leather before sewing to keep it
soft, but I know the leather is not naturally so glossy.  And if
Rawlings does use an artificial coating, how can I obtain a sample?

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Request for Question Clarification by justaskscott-ga on 31 Aug 2005 20:41 PDT

I infer from my research that the leather is inherently glossy, or
made glossy by the process.  I don't believe that the gloss is applied
-- the gloss would just be removed before a game with mud (at least in
Major League Baseball), so what would be the point of applying it?

I can provide information about the process of manufacturing Rawlings
baseballs, and articles about the mud (which, notably, do not suggest
application of gloss).  Would this information be sufficient?

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Clarification of Question by austinmi-ga on 01 Sep 2005 22:31 PDT

Thanks for the responses.  I'm not interested in the mud they use to
rub down the balls with, but instead with the manufacturing process. 
I know Rawlings uses a special process to make the leather white at
Tennessee Tanning using alum, but I've seen the  leather that comes
from the tannery, and it has a smooth, mat finish, not slick like the
outside of MLB balls.  You may be right that the sewing process makes
the leather glossy, since they do tamper with the humidity, first
moistening the balls to sew them, then drying them afterwards.  But
from touching the leather on a baseball, it feels like it has
something else coating it.  I could be wrong, or maybe Rawlings is
trying to protect this information?  In the late 90s with the homerun
explosion, there were allegations that the ball was slicker than
before, but I never saw anything about what caused this finish.  This
article talks about the slicker balls:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/outdoors/outdoors/1277546.html?page=1&c=y

I was about to jump in with the answers suggested by Scotty  -
interesting, I never knew that.
But I do know that in cricket the bowlers also used to remove the
gloss, rubbing the ball on their flannel trousers for the first few
overs  (this is maybe outdated now, the game has changed so much).

Correct, leather is not naturally so glossy, but it is also not
naturally bright white.  The process of applying the white coating may
be what makes it so glossy.  It's just like tennis shoes.