What kind of snakes were they? 

What's interesting to me is that the entire ball shatters at once.  The core/filler didn't blow apart leaving the core to get crushed by itself.  I guess with a limited direction for the force to be relieved, the core shattered still imbedded in the filler pieces.

What's interesting to me is that the entire ball shatters at once.  The core/filler didn't blow apart leaving the core to get crushed by itself.  I guess with a limited direction for the force to be relieved, the core shattered still imbedded in the filler pieces.

Not unexpected. Resin chips, like many materials that shatter upon impact, indicating a plasticity rather than a rubberiness. I think the resin coverstock and the filler shattered; the core seemed to not so much shatter (splinter explosively) as crack apart. If the ball had one of the urethane cores, I'd bet it wouldn't even have cracked.