"It's as American as baseball and apple pie." Alright, you may know where your pie comes from but have you ever tried to buy a baseball made here in the States? All this month our Fact Finders are digging deeper into what products are actually made here in America. In this report, we're looking at gloves, bats, balls, clubs, and rackets, essentially all the things you need to outfit your family's sporting life.

You just wouldn't imagine it would be that hard. I mean a lot of people make baseballs. It is America's past time, but as I scoured one of the largest sporting good stores in Northern Michigan, I couldn't find one baseball that was actually made in America. The closest thing I found in my search of box after box and brand after brand was a softball that claimed to be made by "America's Premiere Softball Company" on the front of the box, but on the bottom declared it was made in China.

And that's not uncommon. China produces at least 80% of the world's baseballs, and the rest come from China's neighbors. There is one exception. The balls for the professionals in Major League Baseball are made in one Rawling's factory down in Costa Rica. So a swing and miss on buying an American ball. How about a glove?

My results were not much better. There is at least one company, Nokona, which makes their ball gloves in Texas. The bad news is that they are high end gloves, with high end prices starting well over $100, (not exactly little league material). Everything else I found, even American companies like Wilson, Rawling's, and Nike, get their leather stitched across the sea. So strike two for supporting the home team.

How about a bat? Well some better news here. Louisville Slugger makes almost all of their wood bats and some of their metal bats here in the states. As a general rule that holds true, but I did find some of their bats with $200 to $300 price tags that were made in China. So you have to double check, but if you're looking for an entry level bat for your little slugger, Louisville's offerings are pretty solid. You can also find a handful of other, less well known brands, like Akadema, that make their bats here in the United States.

Of course, not everyone loves baseball, or is the position to outfit a player, so can I do better with hoops gear? Not really, even the official basketball of the NBA, Spalding, is made in China. In fact digging through a monstrous wall of balls, everything was imported.

How about good old fashioned football? An American classic right? I thought for sure someone made a football in the country where the sport originated, but nope, none from here. It's another case of American owned companies you know, made in factories far away. I found the same results with what they call football in Europe. No soccer balls from the USA, or shin guards either, but I did find some soccer socks made at home. But even that was a challenge. What I found was one brand which made their white socks in America, but their colored socks in China. They were the same brand, looked identical other than the color, but workers thousands of miles away made one color, while American workers made another. I guess you have to look twice!

Golf balls? Yes you can buy American, but not all of them are. Swing away on a Top Flight or a Titleist. They're domestically made, but finding an American made club to hit those balls with proved harder to do. It is tough for adult sized clubs, but even harder for kid's clubs; even the ones assembled here use parts from overseas.

And if you are thinking you might have better luck with tennis, think again. I couldn't find a racket, or a ball made by an American worker.

So I have to be honest, I was pretty disappointed how hard it was to find affordable American-made sporting goods. There is one thing that apparently only American's make. It is for our kids, and it's cheap. As it turns out every wiffle ball I could find was proudly made in the USA.

Do you know of any American made sporting goods? Post a comment below to share with our other viewers.