“To quote every member of the Brooklyn club, except Corcoran, they could count the stitches on every ball that Stratton pitched.” “They Saw the Stitches, But Somehow Could Not Connect with the Ball,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, August 15, 1894, p2
Previous earliest use (Dickson Baseball Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2009):
1909 (Zane Grey, The Short-Stop, p. 89; Edward J. Nichols).