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through the season. But when the World’s Series came along, baseballs were scarcer than ever. Two days before the finish of the Series the league presidents discovered they were out of baseballs. They were frantic . . They telephoned Hubbert's to send 30 dozen to St. Louis. It was a command. Hubbert worked all day on the covers. Ed Hubbert Jr., put them in his car and drove all night through a fog to Chicopee, Mass. There they were stamped, put on a plane and flown to St. Louis. The Series was _completed. __ This year no chances are being taken. The World’s Series baseballs are already made and locked away for protection. Ed Hubbert, founder and boss of the concern, is a stocky, middle-aged, pleasant-faced and kindly-mannered man, who learned all about making baseballs when he was a mere boy. He lived in Fishtown (a neighborhood of Philadelphia) which was directly be hind the Reach factory. He made his first money covering baseballs for A. J. Reach at eight cents a dozen (now the sewing nets 16 cents a half). Then the wage rose to ten, 15 and finally 25 cents a dozen. “We thought we were getting wealthy then,” said Hubbert When he was old enough, Hubbert went to work in the Beach factory, making baseballs. He learned the busi ness from the rubber core to the home run. Then he decided to chuck the whole thing and move to the country. But baseballs were still in his blood He put up a little shop in his kitch en, sewing covers. The kitchen is still there, but the shop is now a factory— bright, air conditioned and bubbling with activity. Edward Hubbert, Sr. a southpaw pitcher, married and the father of Ed ward Hubbert, also learned the busi ness from the ground up and so has the elder Hubbert’s son-in-law, El wood Strohm. And Perkasie has ten industrial teams and ten Church League teams with 400 men playing baseball in that community. What the Hubberts and Perkasie don’t know about baseball you could write on the back of a postage stamp with a whitewash brush. The writer has been cutting up baseballs for the past 30 years with everything from a hatchet to a pen knife, studying the yarns, rubber core, cotton binding and even the egg white from which the cover gets its gloss. But the Hubberts told us more in two minutes about 3 baseball than we had learned in 30 years. “I'm not surprised that the Giants are leading the National League in home runs,” said Ed Hubbert, Sr. “Til be surprised if they don’t break the record. Any strong young man with a bat in his hand can hit a home run these days. It is the fastest, live liest ball made and if records aren't broken it will because there are no Ruths, Gehrigs or Foxxes around.” The reason for the lively ball is simple. The core is now made with natural, not synthetic rubber, and has more bounce. The yarn is the finest grade Australian wool, as good as or better than prewar wool. The cotton is as good as ever, the cement better, the workmanship better and, probably the most important—the horsehide cov er is the best since 1937. “This baseball is a rabbit,” said Hub bert. The improvement in the horsehide cover has been tremendous—and the horsehide alone is worth more than the inner ball (more than half of the hide has to be thrown away because umpires are so funny about blood stains, and roughness). “Before the war, explained Hub bert, “all our hides came from France, Belgium and Germany. Horse meat is a staple article of dirt there . . Horses are raised like cows. Their hides are Edward Hubbert of Perkasie, Pa., Displaying the Component Parts of a Baseball
Newspaper Details
St Louis Sporting News
St Louis, Missouri, US
Wed, Jul 23, 1947
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
PA, USA 01 May 2026
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