Vintage Baseball Experts: A Red/Blue Lace Cronin Ball?

[Rawlings]

Found another very rare and unusual ball I was hoping someone else might know something about. It's a multi-color Cronin Ball, and it has an interesting Spalding stamp - check it out in the listing below and the attached photo. FYI - came from an estate sale of a former MLB exec., more info in this post:

http://www.bigleaguebaseballs.com/main/red-blue-cronin/

[jbsports33]

Red and Blue lace from the 1950s and 1960s can be very hard to find, most baseballs had been manufactured with just Red lace. Spalding may have only sold these few a few years, because I have not see this ball in any of the catalogs. Try looking at some auctions as well to compare

Jimmy

[slidekellyslide]

Was it used for an All Star game?

[sphere and ash]

The 5x baseball, so called because it was 5% livelier, was an experimental baseball. It was used during spring training in 1970 and discontinued because of concerns over the safety of both players and fans. Cronin, whose stamp appears on the ball, referred to the 5x derisively as Bowie Kuhn's "little experiment," and said, "I've seen enough of it. It should be outlawed."

I own both American and National League 5x balls. The National League ball's stitches are one color, though lighter than typical. Red and blue stitches would let players and umpires identify the ball immediately--an important design element given potential safety concerns.

[Rawlings]

That's great information sphere and ash, thank you for sharing! Where did you learn about these baseballs? Do you have any other prototypes from other years?

[Rawlings]

By the way, do you have any additional information on these orange balls pictured in this gallery, and discussed in the article below? Sorry to swamp you with questions, but it's not often I find someone with much info on these rare baseballs!

http://photos.bigleaguebaseballs.com...nd-prototypes/

http://www.bigleaguebaseballs.com/ma...nge-baseballs/

How about a Frick with two-toned stitching? As displayed in my avatar pic: http://www.bigleaguebaseballs.com/ma...colored-laces/