New baseballs during game

[Guest Rick Butler]

During normal play - ground ball to second, throw over to first for an out.  The ball is thrown abound the infield then back to the pitcher and the ball is kept in play.   However if the ball hits the ground during a pitch, it is replaced.  Why?

[JonnyCat]

I'm assuming you're talking about MLB. Correct?

I don't think anyone knows the real answer to that question. It doesn't make any sense, unless there's something I'm missing. They do, however, go through many baseballs during the game. Others can chime in on how many per game are used, and the average number of pitches a ball is used. Maybe they also clean the scuffed ones and re-use them? I don't know.

The correct answer might be: "That's the way we've always done it."

[flyingron]

Often the umpire will drop in a new ball just for expedience while the catcher gives him the current one.   The ump looks at it and either puts it back in his bag or tosses it aside.

 

[Velho]

The balls taken out of play can be recycled into play if they're ok (at least that used to the MLB practice when a friend was a ball boy).

[Senor Azul]

So, why do they change baseballs when it hits the dirt? Because a scuffed up baseball has the potential of giving the pitcher an unfair advantage. The dirt may alter the baseball’s trajectory, giving it unique movement, which is a punishable offense in the MLB. Apparently, a pitcher throwing a pitch into the dirt has the potential to scuff the ball more than a batted ball.

Prior to 1920 most Major League games used just one ball for the whole game. Then a player, Ray Chapman, died from injuries sustained by being hit by a pitch. To this day he is the only player to die from being hurt in a game and a huge contributing factor was the dirty baseballs were hard to see. So MLB was forced to start using more new balls during the game and rules were written that remain in the books to today. Umpires are directed by rule to keep clean, easily seen balls in play--

4.01(e) Have in his possession at least two alternate balls and shall require replenishment of such supply of alternate balls as needed throughout the game. Such alternate balls shall be put in play when:

(1)  A ball has been batted out of the playing field or into the spectator area; 

(2) A ball has become discolored or unfit for further use;

(3) The pitcher requests such alternate ball.

It has become almost automatic for a catcher to hand a ball that was just pitched into the dirt to the umpire and he then hands a new ball to the catcher. So the average life of a ball in a Major League game is only about 5-8 pitches.

[beerguy55]

12 hours ago, Guest Rick Butler said:

During normal play - ground ball to second, throw over to first for an out.  The ball is thrown abound the infield then back to the pitcher and the ball is kept in play.   However if the ball hits the ground during a pitch, it is replaced.  Why?

You're not seeing all the information you need to see.  Off camera the ump has given the catcher a new ball, and after the "around the horn activity" the pitcher throws the ball to the dugout and gets the ball from the catcher...sometimes the camera will pick it up, by accident...most of the time they've moved onto the new batter entering the box.  If you're at a MLB game you will see this.

Basically, no ball  lasts more than a play - if it has hit the ground, or a bat, it's being replaced.

 

The economics of the game no longer justify trying to keep balls around as long as possible.  Even to go through 200-300 balls in a game is less than $10000...it's a rounding error.

[BLWizzRanger]

If we are going to have a robo ump, why not have a conveyor belt that goes from the dugout to the back of the pitching mound and every time a new ball is needed, it appears behind the mound - you know, sort of like bowling balls being returned.  It will save on the Tommy John or rotator cuff surgeries this umps have to endure...

[Rich Ives]

10 minutes ago, BLWizzRanger said:

If we are going to have a robo ump, why not have a conveyor belt that goes from the dugout to the back of the pitching mound and every time a new ball is needed, it appears behind the mound - you know, sort of like bowling balls being returned.  It will save on the Tommy John or rotator cuff surgeries this umps have to endure...

Charly Finley's po-up ball supply.

[The Man in Blue]

2 hours ago, beerguy55 said:

The economics of the game no longer justify trying to keep balls around as long as possible.  Even to go through 200-300 balls in a game is less than $10000...it's a rounding error.

 

See, my thought it also economics, but in a different direction ...

https://www.mlbshop.com/st-louis-cardinals/st-louis-cardinals-rawlings-2021-game-used-baseball/t-69894476+p-593713284574+z-8-311252584?_ref=p-DLP:m-GRID:i-r3c0:po-9

 

[SeeingEyeDog]

6 hours ago, BLWizzRanger said:

If we are going to have a robo ump, why not have a conveyor belt that goes from the dugout to the back of the pitching mound and every time a new ball is needed, it appears behind the mound - you know, sort of like bowling balls being returned.  It will save on the Tommy John or rotator cuff surgeries this umps have to endure...

[looks up from his garage experiments trying to develop an umpire shoe with a switchblade brush on the side and shakes hairy fist...]

It'll never work!

~Dawg

[MadMax]

On 6/6/2022 at 9:54 PM, Guest Rick Butler said:

However if the ball hits the ground during a pitch, it is replaced. 

It’s replaced for the moment, but that ball might be used again. The ballboy at a Major League game, positioned by the home dugout and on-deck circle, has a supply of new (rubbed) baseballs in a tote; on the other side, he has a fairly large tub / bucket. Most balls taken out of play are relayed to this ballboy; he is given the discretion to put them right back into the tote, discard them into the bucket, or to occasionally give one to a fan. Ever so often, a MLB Authenticator will appear in the dugout and will retrieve a ball from the game or from the ballboy for the purposes of archiving or selling in the Team Store. 

Now, those discard balls in the bucket do not get sent down to the Minor Leagues. Instead, they are either shuttled down to the bullpens, relayed to the dugouts to be used as warmup balls (note that the typical practice now is for the fielders to toss the warmups in the stands), or kept for live batting practice the next few days. 

They’ve got plenty.