10 bits of baseball history I learned from "A Game of Inches"

6. Baseballs fresh out of the box are not used in games.

Susannah Snowden
Have these balls been scuffed with secret mud?

To remove their slickness, they are rubbed with an especially fine mud scooped out of a secret spot in the Delaware River. The mud was discovered by Lena Blackburne, a former major leaguer who shared a can of it with umpire Harry Giesel. Blackburne’s family continues to supply the mud to the major leagues. A can today reportedly sells for $100 or more.

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