BASEBALL 101: Part One, The Ball

So the season has begun and we’ve established that April is a time for spring training for the fans. Let’s go back to basics and learn more about the very basic tools about baseball. Baseball is played in many different parts of the world from the big luxury stadiums designed for Major League Baseball in the United States all the way down to the sandlots and backyards and city streets where a bunch of kids make it up as they go along. But there are some basics that everyone uses. Bats, balls, sometimes gloves, and something that designates bases. So as you are learning your team rosters and trying to match new names to new faces (or enjoying having the old faces back) let’s talk about Baseball 101. Let’s start with the ball.

You already know that a ball has 108 red stitches around a ball of white (the same number of beads that are in a rosary Annie swears in Bull Durham.) Here’s a couple other interesting things to impress your friends.

Delaware River Mud

11 dozen

Puerto Rico

Holstein Cows

Let’s start by getting our hands dirty. It surprised me to find out that in the Major League Games, those baseballs that looks so pristine and white on TV or at the ball field are all rubbed with mud before the game. Not just any mud, but Delaware River Mud, or more accurately Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud. You see, those bright white balls are more easily seen by the batter. One website claims you can see a clean white ball from an airplane flying over a field. That puts the pitcher at a big disadvantage, though how anyone can see a 95 mph fast ball is beyond me anyway but I guess the whiter it is, the easier it is to see. Also, a shiny ball is harder to get a grip on for the pitcher. So to even up the score in the Big Leagues, the balls get rubbed with mud. Before 1939, seems like any old mud, or tobacco juice or shoe polish was good enough but a man named Lena Blackburne discovered a special kind of mud in the Delaware River that didn’t ruin the leather cover like some mud did or scratch up the surface. Now that’s the preferred mud that is used and it’s exact location of where the mud is harvested from is kept secret but it is know that it is somewhere on the Delaware River and in New Jersey. The mud is so famous that it was enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1969. (Now, there’s baseball trivia for you!)

Sometimes it’s the umpire or an umpire’s assistant that gets the dirty duty and sometimes it is a special person assigned the task. It is an important task. You got to get it on even and in the seams.

(Note: a great present for a baseball fan friend is the "Got Mud?" tee shirt sold on the Lena Blackburne Rubbing Mud website. The Boyfriend wrote a great mandolin song called Delaware River Mud on his cd of original mandolin tunes called Alaska Mando.)

Used to be that just one ball would be used during the game until it was too damaged to use. Like other sports, such as football and soccer, if the ball went up into the stands, the fans either threw it back or an employee went up into the stands to retrieve it. But a batter named Ray Chapman got beaned in the head during a twilight game and it was thought it was because he couldn’t see the ball. So the switch to clean white balls began.

There’s another reason as well. Balls need to be clean and new (Blackburne’s mud notwithstanding) because a scuff or a scratch or a tear can change the projectory of the ball and that gives the advantage to the pitcher. One baseball guide said, “A scuff, scratch or tear on the ball will affect its flight, creating greater aerodynamic drag on one side of the ball … the ball will curve toward the scuffed side of the ball.” Remember those stories about pitchers keeping sandpaper in their pockets? That’s a big no-no, and gets you kicked out of the game. So if balls are scuffed, or damaged in any way, you’ll see the catcher hand the ball to the umpire who may inspect it and take it out of play. But it’s not thrown away. Balls not used in for major league play are used for batting practice the next day, or in some cases may even get sent to the Minor Leagues. In the Minors, they use balls until they fall apart.

In the Major Leagues, on average about six dozen balls are used during a game, though during a hard hitting games or a game with a fast ball pitcher and lots of fouls, up 11 dozen balls might be used in a single game. You know who I’m talking about. Those great batters with good eyes who will run the count up to 3 balls, 2 strikes, then proceed to foul off the ball for another four or five swings. So if you are watching the game and you get one of those batters up, slip in your trivia. Some might be fouled off into the stands, some go out of the park on a home run, some are taken out of play due to scuffing or dirt. Or if you are a lucky fan, an outfielder or one of the Seattle Mariner ball girls will toss a catch up to you.

All the balls used in Major League baseball are made to exact specifications by one manufacturer. The balls used in play are made by Rawlings and all have been manufactured in Puerto Rico since 1990. Si, es verdad! And before 1974, horsehide was used in making baseballs, but I guess a shortage of available horses caused a switch to cowhide. Best cows for making baseballs? Yep, Midwestern Holstein cows because they have clean, smooth hides. That one goes out to all the Milwaukee Brewer fans back in my home state of Wisconsin. Eat some deep fried cheese curds in my honor, okay?

We All Go To Spring Training

This week is Opening Day at a stadium near you. A new season of baseball begins. And I’m still a noodle.

I was sitting in the Cubs spring training ball park of HoHoKam Park in Mesa, Arizona just a few weeks ago on a March (yes, March!) day, 80 degrees and hot and seated three rows above the Cubs dugout. Chicago's Alfonso Sorriano was up at bat and hit a fierce foul ball in my direction. I impulsively ducked, and didn’t come up until I heard it hit the tin roof above the fans and watched it roll backwards into the parking lot.

I learned something about baseball as I was sitting on that glorious day in those glorious seats beginning my baseball season. Right handed batters are more likely to pop up foul balls more toward the area behind the first base side of the field, and lefties pop up more to the third base side. And there I was in foul territory without a cafeteria tray in sight. “Keep sharp,” the Boyfriend warned. “We are sitting in the danger zone.” I decided to depend on the rabidity of the Cubs fans surrounded me to beat me to the ball and looked around at my defenders.

No problem, I decided quickly. The three red headed little boys in the front row wearing Lee, Zambrano and Soriano Cubs jerseys had it covered, as well as the very large Hispanic man in a Chicago Bulls jersey sitting next to me, and the tan, trim sixties something man in front of me with his baseball glove in his lap. I just needed to get out of their way.

Hey girlfriend, baseball season is here again! This spring, by mere chance, I found myself in Arizona during late March, which means that I found myself in spring training heaven and seated next to the Boyfriend during a Cubs versus Mariners game. I was wearing Mariner fan colors, blue and white (and a deep shade of pink from the very hot Arizona sun after a long Alaskan winter. Even number 30 sunblock only delays the inevitable for folks like me who are the color of fish belly white after winter.) Spring training games don’t count toward final stats, so the sea of blue and red Cubs fans who surrounded me were tolerant of my cheering and spontaneous clapping after a Seattle double play which sent two Cubbies trotting back to the dugout.

But there it all was. All the things I love about a live game. The 11-year-old singing the Star Spangled Banner (look for her on American Idol, she had the “work the crowd moves” down pat), the invitation to the kids to run the bases after the games (“Just like the major leaguers do, kids!”) the crack of the bat, the bark of the beer vendors walking up and down the stadium aisles (icy beer really does taste better in hot sunshine), the Cubs tradition of throwing the opponents homerun ball (this one hit by Chris Woodward) back on to the field rather than keeping it. The Mariners lost the game, but it didn’t matter. We called Steve, the Hopeful and Hopeless Cubs Fan from the field and rubbed it in that we were there and he wasn’t, and all of it was in good fun.

Ah, but my little bag of salted peanuts, you are saying to yourself, “Mariners vs. Cubs? That doesn’t make sense! One is a National League team and the other is an American League. ” But during spring training it does. And I’m proud of you for noticing the difference.

Spring training for the baseball players starts in February and gives everyone a chance to get back in shape, audition for the teams and also gives the starved fans a chance to get a jump on the season by watching the exhibition games between teams who may not play regularly against each other in the regular season. Down in Arizona, teams such as the Mariners, Cubs, San Diego Padres, San Francisco Giants, Milwaukee Brewers, Cleveland Indians and Kansas City Royals have their spring training camps. It’s called The Cactus League, as opposed to The Grapefruit League which of course are all the teams that go to Florida, including those pesky Yankees and Red Sox.

Don’t think going to a spring training game was all fun and games, however. Baseball is serious business. The Boyfriend came back after an absence (kindly carrying two ice cold beers in hand) and asked, “What did I miss?” There is was. The test. I’m a fairly new convert to baseball so the words don’t yet come easily. I had to reach back to last season and remember the right terminology. I tried to say as casually as I knew how, “A line drive, stand up double by Derrick Lee. “

“Oh, “ he said and handed me my beer without giving me a double take as he settled back into his stadium seat. Inside, my inner peanut gallery let loose a cheer. I avoided the “stink eye”!

You see, when baseball returns, we all have to go to spring training. We all have to get back into the groove of a nine (or more) inning game, and pace ourselves with the nacho boats and the beverages, and remember what the lingo is, and once again, review the infield fly rule once again, just in case someone asks us. We have to get to know our teams again because they’ve been traded, injured, retired and banished since last October and the new guys are unfamiliar and unproven. We mourn the loss of favored players and sometimes have to get used to seeing them in new uniforms, and new positions and sometimes even new leagues.

This is a disconcerting time because maybe you grew to love your team last year, and now, well, they’ve changed. You don’t know who these fresh faced players are who look like they are ten years old and skinny as a whip. Can you ever feel that passionate about your team, ever again? Will baseball ever be as fun as it was last year? Well, sometimes yes, sometimes no. But remember, the more you know, the more you will enjoy it. So like the players do, start with the basics. Pick a team, get a copy of the roster before the games, learn the new names and faces, and get back into shape. Re-read some of the old entries of this blog if you have to in order to remember the difference between a change up and fast ball and what the box scores in the newspaper mean.

Because the truth is, March is spring training for the players, but April is spring training for the fans. And spring training starts somewhere in your neighborhood on Opening Day, April 6. You are welcomed to sit in my row and watch the game with me. But stay sharp! We are sitting in the danger zone.