A stitch in time: Norwell man makes baseballs the old-fashioned way

NORWELL − For William Peebles, baseball is more than just his favorite sport.

For him, it's a game out of time, dripping with history, memories and worldwide appeal that brings people of all ages, genders and nationalities together with a common love of the sport. His fascination with baseball came to him not through generations of his own family or even a natural talent for the game, but from a Pembroke man in his 70s who took the time to share a piece of himself with a 10-year-old neighbor.

"It was kind of this old-timey thing − an old man and a young kid telling baseball stories, drinking lemonade and listening to the Red Sox on the radio," Peebles, now a father of two, said. "He told stories that brought these black-and-white figures to life."

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As they followed games together over the years, the kindly neighbor had no way of knowing that, someday, that little kid would grow into one of the last makers of old-fashioned, hand-sewn baseballs in the country.

"It's baseball history, keeping things alive that are long dead," Peebles said. "These things would be gone if I − and people like me − weren't keeping them alive."

Peebles is the founder, artist and sole employee of the Huntington Base Ball Co., a producer of handmade baseballs, bats, leather wallets, scorebooks and wall art. He's one of the few − if not the only − small makers of such equipment left in the country, and he does it all out of his Grove Street garage in Norwell.

He starts with a ball core − layers of rubber, wool and other materials that he buys pre-made. From there, he cuts and shaves large swaths of leather and turns them into figure-eight shaped pieces. Each ball needs two. He uses either a brass stamp, leather stamp or brand to emboss or burn custom logos onto the leather, then uses waxed linen to hand-thread 116 stitches into each ball. When he's finished, even the box they're packed in has been glued together by hand.

"It's a lot of time and effort to do a custom ball one time. It isn't something big businesses are willing to take on, but I am," he said. "They're artistic and custom made. I think everyone who buys a ball from me understands it's a handmade piece of art. I give each one the level of attention you would give a piece of art."

It takes him, on average, 45 minutes to make a single ball, and that's after almost 12 years of getting it down to an exact science. It's harder than it sounds to make a perfectly round, aerodynamic ball by hand and there are dozens of factors and equations Peebles had to work out both on paper and by trial and error. From the exact shrinkage of the leather to how many stitches it needs − his balls have eight more than the standard balls used in Major League games − it's been a work in progress since he was a student at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.

"At first, I thought it would be easy, but it was really hard. My first piece was terrible and it really ate away at me," he said. "I wanted to make it right. I didn't want my story to end with an ugly ball."

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Peebles majored in industrial design and worked designing home goods until his employer went under in the 2008 financial crash. With the help of a friend at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y., he took a chance on his dream and launched his company, named for Huntington Avenue in Boston − the street MassArt is on.

"I made my first baseball in college at one end of the street, a quarter-mile away was where the first World Series was played and, in between, there's fine art."

It's safe to say he's perfected the craft − he sells baseballs in Cooperstown at the annual induction ceremony and his work has been commissioned by Jaguar, the Clemente Museum, the Federal League of Base Ball Clubs and other instantly recognizable names. He has two custom brass stamps in his studio − one with the presidential seal and another with the signature of President George W. Bush − that he uses to make custom balls for the presidential library in Dallas.

His first "Oh, s***" moment came when he made a custom baseball for sports commentator Bob Costas.

"I went from making balls for people I know, to people I don't know, to people everybody knows," he said. "Everybody knows a baseball fan."

Uniquely Local is a series of stories by Mary Whitfill highlighting the South Shore’s farmers, bakers and makers. Have a story idea? Reach Mary at mwhitfill@patriotledger.com.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Norwell's Huntington Base Ball Co. makes baseballs the old-fashioned way