Hard-Core Stuff

Did you ever eyeball the very center
Not many did seize that opportunity
But that didn't stop his quest to see
His curiosity was a powerful force.

Could he accomplish that task alone
Old cowhide being ripped in places
Tempted him to explode deep inside
A sharp blade opened a wider wound.

Yet silence spoke when the skin split
Crisscrossing tangled masses of fiber
He could detect under the light tan skin
A pattern possible, he needed to see more.

His understanding was greatly hampered
Until he could remove the smooth cowhide
With extreme care he guided the blade along
And the gap widened with each slow thrust.

Inside he reached and with a sure hand
He pulled out that four-ounce solid mass
Now a jagged cutting edge was needed
To saw through the hard stringy sphere.

The fibers broke and a valley appeared
Not cutting deeper, he carved a long path
Until the circumference a half inch deep
Could be peeled from the stringy thickness.

By gripping part and pulling off the threads
Again he employed the sharpest knife he had
And cut around the smaller orb methodically
More care now taken to not damage the core.

The sphere could consist of wound-up thread
Would it still be so hard if that was the case
He mastered again a deep circumference cut
And then he peeled the thin strings in bunches.

Away from what was once a four-ounce bundle
Leaving a ball no larger than the human eye
On one more cut he couldn't take a chance
Injury to the center was likely at this stage.

Grabbing one loose thread with his hand
He cupped the sphere with the other loosely
And below the thinning thread pink and round
A hard perfect sphere was quickly emerging.

And now one hand held the last piece of thread
The other opened wide held an inch-thick sphere
Just one time he would attempt this job for sure
For he learned baseballs have a hard rubber core.

Written by Harvey A. Bond
April 9, 2008