Last week brought news that a certain domestic automobile company - one whose advertising cast it as synonymous with baseball, hot dogs and all things Americana - had to halt production of two pickup truck models because it couldn't get transmissions that were made in Japan.
Later last week, The A-T also discovered most items made for playing the game of baseball no longer are made in the United States. Our search did find a good ol' wooden Louisville Slugger available at a local department store which was made here. A Wiffleball bat-and-ball combo sold by a Tiffin Hardware store also was made in the U.S., and a check at a local sporting goods store found at least one metal baseball bat and half a dozen softball bats sporting made-in-the-USA labels.
Better still, that store also carried two baseball gloves made by Nokona, which makes all its gloves and mitts in America. We've since discovered Akadema's Patriot line of fielder's gloves and catcher's mitts are made in the U.S.
Sadly, we could not find one baseball - or one basketball, for that matter - made in the United States.
