where does the mud for baseballs come from
Baseball rubbing mud Before the use of rubbing mud, baseballs were rubbed in a mixture of water and infield soil, but this method usually discolored the ball's leather surface.[1] Other alternatives at the time were tobacco juice, shoe polish, and soil from under stadium bleachers. They were able to successfully take off the sheen from baseballs, but at the same time, they also damaged and scratched the ball's leather.[2] While Lena Blackburne was a third-base coach for the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team, an umpire complained to him about the method used at the time, prompting Blackburne in 1938 to set out in search of better mud to use to rub against baseballs. Later that decade, Blackburne discovered the rubbing mud's location (said to be "near" Palmyra, New Jersey) and founded the company that he used to sell it.[3] According to the company, the entire American League used the mud soon after its discovery, and by the 1950s, it was in use by every major league team, along with some minor league and college teams.[1]