Baseball's Dirty Secret

With the start of the World Series last night this is a good time to post something about baseball. The topic is an interesting story about mud.

From CNN...

The tides are just right. Armed with a stack of buckets, a shovel and a pushcart, Bintliff walk sthrough the woods on a narrow winding trail he has followed for the past 44 years. Then, the forest opens up to reveal a secret fishing hole that lies on the banks of the Delaware River and in the sometimes-quirky pages of baseball history.

"Nobody knows this is where I get the magic mud," Bintliff says.

Out of nine brothers and sisters, Bintliff was the one picked to carry on the family business -- Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud.

The unique muck is the only brand used each year by Major League Baseball, and its minor-league affiliates, to abide by a line in the league's rule book requiring umpires to inspect balls and make sure they're "properly rubbed so the gloss is removed."

"From 1938, on all those record home runs and those thousands of strikeouts, my mud's been on every ball."

While clearing out somethings from my mom's house the other day I came across a baseball signed by a few NY Mets in 1968. Now I realize that baseball has Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud on it.