Negotiations dragged on last summer between Major League Baseball and Rawlings Sporting Goods over a new contract to provide the game with its centerpiece, the baseball. It would seem only natural, then, if the 48 employees of Tennessee Tanning Co. (TTC) in Tullahoma looked upon those negotiations with at least some trepidation. At stake was the sporting equipment company’s nearly three-decade run as the exclusive provider of baseballs to the big leagues, and, by extension, continued job security for TTC employees.

Was the tannery safe? Or out? When the dust settled, TTC’s virtual monopoly over the production of leather hides for use in the production of balls remained intact. TTC’s parent, Rawlings Sporting Goods of St. Louis, and Major League Baseball inked a new five-year extension stretching through 2008.

The chances of Rawlings failing to secure the contract were remote from the start. In TTC, Rawlings owns and operates the singular tannery in America specializing in bleaching raw cowhide bright white for baseballs—and the one tannery with the proprietary methods needed to produce baseball leather to the strict specifications set by America’s pastime. Thus, not even the league’s attempt to use the company’s then-pending 2003 merger with California-based sporting equipment manufacturer K2 as a negotiating point for more favorable terms could jeopardize the safe harbor enjoyed by TTC and Rawlings.

Such employment security sets TTC workers apart from most other manufacturing laborers across rural Tennessee, whose jobs are susceptible to market downturns and outsourcing. That includes fellow Tullahoma manufacturer Worth Inc. Like Rawlings, Worth was purchased by K2 in 2003, bringing both longtime Tullahoma businesses under the same umbrella. (TTC was founded by Worth employee Lee Soesbe, who left the company in the 1940s to start independently tanning leather for non-sporting purposes.) Since K2’s acquisition, Worth has seen over 20% of its workforce eliminated as redundancies have been identified and segments of its sporting equipment production moved to China. Worth CEO Robert Parish relocated to St. Louis as the new president of Rawlings.

In contrast to such upheaval, little has changed at the tannery over the past 30 years, either in size or scope of the operation, or even its management. Mike Cunningham, the current general manager, has worked at the plant for decades. Cunningham’s father was the former tannery GM and the man who developed many of the tannery’s proprietary methods.

Nor has much changed with the tannery’s finished product—at least according to company officials. Although a recent Popular Mechanics article found that modern day major league baseballs are not “juiced” or altered for greater flight as many have concluded, it did suggest the hides of balls today are slicker and therefore harder for pitchers to control. Responds Parish, “No hide is exactly the same. But in terms of any overall differences, I would challenge if the ball is really more slick or not. Through the years, the balls have been as consistent a product as you can make.” The employees of the Tennessee Tanning Co. no doubt enjoy the consistent employment that comes as a result.

Not for the faint of heart

Semi-trucks loaded with black-and-white hides from Holstein milking cows arrive at the tannery weekly from Ohio and Pennsylvania. Hides are split with a butcher’s knife then lifted into spinning drums where hair, fat and muscle tissue are removed. A concoction of chemicals bleaches the hides a shiny white. After drying two days in hundred-degree heat, hides are shaved to precise Major League Baseball specifications. The product is then shipped to Costa Rica where it is united with fibers from Ludlow, Vt., and cork spheres sealed in rubber from Batesville, Miss. Low-wage hourly employees assemble the balls, which retail for nearly $15.