How many balls are available for a major league game?
November 2, 2016 8:16 PM   Subscribe

The internet says that frequently 90~100 are used, and I'm sure they have well double on hand, but does anybody know exactly how many they stock?
posted by colin_l to Society & Culture (4 answers total)
 
I see two answers on line. One Quara answer without attribution claims 8 dozen per game; the more definitive answer claims five dozen or so, rubbed with special mud. (That sounds low to me.)

The rules say that:
3.01 (c) Receive from the home club a supply of regulation baseballs, the number and make to be certified to the home club by the league president. The umpire shall inspect the baseballs and ensure they are regulation baseballs and that they are properly rubbed so that the gloss is removed.
posted by blob at 9:17 PM on November 2, 2016


Best answer: Found a better answer.
posted by blob at 9:19 PM on November 2, 2016 [6 favorites]


Most teams play 3 or 4 game series. I highly doubt it is a just in time delivery system. So assuming there are 130 balls per game used then I would surmise that there are around 500 balls "available". It may require some in game rubbing up of the baseballs with mud, but I highly doubt they would ever run out. I think in addition to the mud, that I recall they store the game balls in some sort of climate controlled unit, maybe even a refrigerator.

blob's linked article above is a good one.
posted by AugustWest at 11:12 PM on November 2, 2016 [2 favorites]


AugustWest, you might be thinking of Coors Field in Denver where the balls are stored in a humidor to make sure they don't dry out and thus respond differently than at other parks.
posted by mmascolino at 10:43 AM on November 3, 2016


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