Discovery Channel piece on mud on baseballs

HoofHearted

I just watched an interesting show on the Discovery Channel, Mike Rowe's "Dirty Jobs" piece, which showed a guy who gathers the mud, processes it, and packages it, for the umpires to rub on the balls before major league games. The history of the practice came about after Ray Chapman (was it?) was killed by a pitched ball. New balls are too slick for the pitchers to keep control of, so therefore the need for the mud coating.

Catch it if you get a chance!

pandrews

ive seen it before, and for some reason i thought it was ridiculous the measures they go to in order to get the mud just right..

and homeboy gets his mud from a top-secret little mudhole back in the woods..

NewJerseyMeatHook

What's wrong with spit and some red Georgia infield clay?

Stone193

Mike

Do they gather the mud from a special place?

I thought I remember seeing on a show that they use mud from the Miss. delta.

Also, if I remember, isn't it the umps that are responsible for the balls being rubbed up before each game?

mike

bengineno9

Saw this awhile back. It was great. The guy blinfolded Mike before they left.



Also, if I remember, isn't it the umps that are responsible for the balls being rubbed up before each game?

The umps might do it, but i think the equipment managers from each team do most of it as well

HoofHearted

And the guy adds some kind of "secret ingredient" to the mud before packaging it! He wouldn't let Rowe stay in the room while he added it!!

softparade

First they used the juice of chewing tobacco, then mud made of water and dirt from the playing field, to remove the sheen from new baseballs so pitchers could get a better grip following the death of Ray Chapman from an errant pitch in the 1920s.
Lena Blackburne played for
eight seasons on four different
teams between 1910-1929 (baseball card courtesy of the Library of Congress)

Russell Aubrey “Lena” Blackburne, a coach with Connie Mack’s old Philadelphia Athletics during the 1930s, heard some umpires griping about that nasty tobacco juice they had to apply to the balls.

Blackburne later was fishing on a Delaware River tributary in New Jersey when he scooped up some mud from the creek. He tried it out on a shiny new ball -- an experiment that would alter the course of our National Pastime.

The mud, described as “smooth and creamy, but with a fine grit,” worked better than the juice!

Today, “Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud” is still used throughout Major League Baseball to rough up the six or seven dozen new balls prepared for every game. All minor league clubs and a few colleges use the mud, too. In fact, a team will go through about three or four pounds of it every season.


It has been reported that pitchers seem to like the balls dark, especially ones “well done.” They claim the brownish texture makes it harder for batters to figure out a ball’s rotation.

“Nolan (Ryan) liked ‘em black,” noted one clubhouse manager referring to the all-time major league strikeout pitcher.

Blackburne died in the 1960s and a close friend took over the task of “harvesting” the mud from its secret Delaware River Basin location. Now, that friend’s grandson carries on the tradition.

Companies have tried to offer their own rubbing mud over the years. But in the words of the grandson, “The other mud doesn’t come close.”

HoofHearted

<< <i>Saw this awhile back. It was great. The guy blinfolded Mike before they left.



Also, if I remember, isn't it the umps that are responsible for the balls being rubbed up before each game?

The umps might do it, but i think the equipment managers from each team do most of it as well >>



Correct, Ben. That came out in the segment. I missed the beginning so I wasn't sure where the Heck they were...

softparade

Any knowledgeable baseball fan will tell you that the big league baseball teams never use brand new baseballs in a game. They're too shiny to play with. So, what do umpires use to prep the balls and dull the shine?
New Jersey mud.
For nearly fifty years, a special variety of Jersey muck, Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud, has been removing the sheen from baseballs for just about every professional baseball team in the country.

It all began in 1938 when an umpire complained to Lena Blackburne, a third base coach for the old Philadelphia Athletics, about the sorry condition of the baseballs used by the American League. Back then a ball was prepped simply with mud made of water and dirt from the playing field. The result? The ball's cover was too soft, leaving it open for tampering. Something was needed to take off the shine but not soften the cover.

Blackburne took on the challenge. Next time he returned to his home in Burlington County, he checked out the mud along tributaries of the Delaware River until he found some muck (the whereabouts of the mud hole is still a dark secret) with a texture he felt would do the job. Taking a batch to the Athletics' field house, he rubbed some balls with the stuff. It worked like a charm! What's more, it had no odor and didn't turn the balls black. The umpires were happy, and Lena Blackburne was in the mud supply business.





Soon the entire American League was using the amazing gunk. Later, the National League took to using it. Before Blackburne's death in the late 50's, his baseball rubbing mud was being used by every major and most minor leagues in the United States.
Blackburne's mud business, along with the secret of the mud's source, was willed to a close pal, John Haas, who had worked with Blackburne on his mud-finding exploits. Haas eventually turned over the enterprise to his son-in-law, Burns Bintliff. Burns in turn passed it on to son Jim and his family.

Each July the Bintliff crew heads a boat out to the "ole mud hole" and scoops up hundreds of pounds of the "Magic Mud", enough for one season. Then the precious product rest in barrels until the next spring when it's packed and shipped to each of the major league teams, minor league teams, most independent leagues and many colleges in time for opening day.

Does Jim Bintliff wave a magic wand over the mud during the winter, or add some mysterious ingredients to it? That too is a dark secret. He'll never tell. What counts is that the muck, described as resembling a cross between chocolate pudding and whipped cold cream, really works! Other kinds of mud and even mechanical methods have been tried to de-slick baseballs, but they couldn't make the grade.

So, when the umpire yells "Play ball!" rest assured, good New Jersey mud will be part of the game.

Stone193

<< <i>Any knowledgeable baseball fan will tell you that the big league baseball teams never use brand new baseballs in a game. They're too shiny to play with. So, what do umpires use to prep the balls and dull the shine? >>


I know that equipment guys do it - and umps sometimes do it or delegate it. Ultimately, I think the umps are responsible that it is taken care of?

On the difference - it's like day and night.

First ball - Rose auto:



White as snow.

And the second is a game used ball from Brett's 3000 hit game and poorly signed:



mike

HoofHearted

Stone - Thanks for showing us your balls! The difference between the two is amazing. I would imagine the game-used balls would make a sig a little harder to create...