MLB takes 'inside baseball' cliche to natural conclusion

The wonders of contemporary social media give fans unprecedented access to in-depth baseball information. But the people running Major League Baseball's official Twitter account took the "inside baseball" theme to a new level on Monday, posting this short clip of a baseball being deconstructed. It's mesmerizing:

Try doing that with a hockey puck.

The video gives all of us without access to expendable baseballs a glimpse of the thread, yarn and rubber center beneath the leather cover and stitching. And it provides us an opportunity to meditate on how fundamentally wonderful a baseball is. Here's former Giants and Padres pitcher Dave Dravecky on the matter:

All you have to do is pick up a baseball. It begs to you: throw me. If you took a year to design an object to hurl, you'd end up with that little spheroid small enough to nestle in your fingers but big enough to have some heft, lighter than a rock but heavier than a hunk of wood. Its even, neat stitching, laced into the leather's slippery white surface, gives your fingers a purchase. A baseball was made to throw. It's almost irresistible.

And of course, no reference to the cover being torn off a baseball would be complete without a shoutout to Roy Hobbs: