A small town in Costa Rica makes the Big Leagues as Rawlings consolidates base
Monday, July 12, 2010
In Turrialba, a small, heavily forested mountain town about an hour and a half from the Costa Rican capital of San José, the production plant of Rawlings, the official maker of the major league baseball, sits in a long, white-paneled, 80,000 square-foot facility.
There, pink-colored combinations of rubber and cork are transformed into the red-stitched leather balls that fly around US ballparks every night.
In 1987, Rawlings came to Costa Rica when political strife in Haiti prompted the company to consider relocation. Each weekday, more than 700 employees gather at the factory to create the intricate dimensions of the ball, as well as other Rawlings apparel.
Original source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram