View source for Engineering:Baseball Rubbing Mud

{{Short description|Mud used to treat baseballs}}
'''Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud''' is a brand of specially prepared [[Earth:Mud|mud]] used to prepare [[Engineering:Baseball (ball)|balls]] in the sport of baseball before they are put into play. Newly manufactured baseballs have a somewhat slick and glossy surface, so when new they are rubbed down with the mud to reduce the slickness and give pitchers a firmer grip and better control without damaging or discoloring the ball.<ref name=florida />

==History==
Before the discovery of the rubbing mud, baseballs were rubbed in a mixture of [[Chemistry:Water|water]] and infield [[Chemistry:Soil|soil]], but this method usually discolored the ball's leather surface.<ref name=florida /> Other alternatives at the time were [[Biology:Tobacco water|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.<ref>{{cite web |accessdate=2009-10-06 |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102804315 |title=Secret Dirt's Pivotal Role In Baseball |publisher=NPR |date=2009-04-06 }}</ref> While Lena Blackburne was a third-base coach for the Philadelphia Athletics (now based in Oakland, California), 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 – Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud.<ref name=csmonitor>{{cite web |accessdate=2009-10-06 |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1018/p18s02-hfks.html?s=widep |title=The dirt on baseball |work=The Christian Science Monitor |date=2005-10-18 |author=Nordell, John }}</ref> 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 Baseball (MLB) team, along with some minor league and college teams.<ref name=florida />

When advancing age prevented him from harvesting the mud, Blackburne, who died in 1968, left the company to a friend, John Haas;<ref name=CNN>{{cite news|url=http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/10/28/baseball.mud/index.html?iref=24hours |title=Harvesting baseball's 'magic mud' |first=Thomas |last=Andres |publisher=CNN |date=October 28, 2009 |accessdate=January 17, 2016}}</ref> according to the company, Haas had accompanied Blackburne during his searches for an appropriate mud. Haas later left the company to his son-in-law Burns Bintliff, who in turn selected one of his nine children, current owner Jim, to carry on the business.<ref name=CNN/> Jim Bintliff told CNN in 2009 that the company only brought in about {{wipe|United States dollar}}20,000 per year; at the time, he worked full-time as a printing press operator.<ref name=CNN/>

The mud originates from the New Jersey side of the Delaware River. The mud is cleaned and screened before sale.<ref name=florida /> Each year Jim Bintliff visits the mud's source and returns with {{convert|1,000|lb|0}} of it to store over the winter and sells it the following baseball season.<ref name=csmonitor /> Bintliff told CNN:

<blockquote>If anybody happens to catch me in the act of harvesting mud, I come up with a story to give them a reason I'm putting mud in a bucket. I've told people I use it in my garden, I use it for my rose bushes, I use it for bee stings and poison ivy and any kind of story.<ref name=CNN/></blockquote>

==Usage==
Before all MLB and MiLB games, an umpire or clubhouse attendant rubs six dozen or more balls with the mud to give them a rougher surface, to make them easier for pitchers to grip, and to comply with MLB Rule 4.01(c), which states that all baseballs shall be "properly rubbed so that the gloss is removed." The rubbing mud's unique feature is that it is "very fine, like thick chocolate pudding",<ref name=florida /> and it has been considered the "perfect baseball-rubbing mud".<ref name=florida>{{cite web |accessdate=2009-10-06 |url=http://jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/070406/sps_3737799.shtml |title=All-American mud needed to take shine off baseballs |work=The Florida Times-Union |date=2006-07-04 |author=Schneider, Jason }}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://baseballrubbingmud.com/ Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud]

[[Category:Baseball equipment]]

{{Sourceattribution|Baseball Rubbing Mud}}