Have you ever wondered how many baseballs are used in a game or season?
Made from a two pieces of leather cover, two wax strings, cork and almost a mile-and-a-half long yarn, a 9 inch baseball is by T-ballers to MLB players and fans from all over the world.
While parents, fans and players anxiously wait for the spring season to begin, equipment managers from rec league to professional baseball organizations are working hard to make sure that we have enough baseballs to accommodate thousands of games that will be played in a year.
As a baseball fan and a local rec league commissioner, I can shed some light on the the staggering number of baseballs that are used each year by various leagues.
But first, you may first want to read How Many Games Are Played in a Season.
Youth Leagues
On average, four to eight recreation baseball teams are formed for a particular age bracket each spring (slightly less in fall ball).
Each team plays approximately 8 to 10 regular-season games and your league may add 3 or so additional playoff games at the end of the season.
Unlike professional leagues, local recreation leagues are volunteer run, non-profit organizations so they tend to purchase just enough baseballs to complete the spring and/or fall baseball.
Based on a limited budget and historical information, a rec team managers given 2 boxes of age appropriate baseballs (there are dozen baseballs in a box) at the beginning beginning of each season.
It is the manager’s responsibility to make it through the entire season with these 2 boxes of baseballs.
However, during playoffs games, a league will usually provide additional baseballs if needed.
Some leagues instruct a home team to provide all baseballs but since most rec leagues are self-contained (i.e. all teams are from the same town/league), the rule book usually says that each team provide two games balls to the home plate umpire.
Free Baseballs?
If your low on budget and need some practice balls for your team, read my post, Where Can I Get Some Free or Unwanted Baseballs?
In most youth games (1st through 4th graders), four game balls will be sufficient. If additional baseballs are needed, team managers will usually dip into their practice balls rather then opening up more (new) game balls.
Just keep in mind that most rec leagues I know tend to purchase cheaper brand of baseballs for teams in these age groups because they are just learning to hit. But the leather and stitching qualities can be poor so these baseballs don’t necessarily last as long.
On the other hand, players on the older teams (i.e. 6th grader and up) do hit hard, so we purchase higher quality baseballs like Rawlings, Diamond and McGregor branded baseballs.
Managers for these older teams are given two boxes of baseballs as well so you will need to instruct your players to go and try to find foul tipped baseballs that end up in a wooded area.
So a typical, medium sized rec league team will consume:
- 1-2 baseballs per game
- approximately 24 baseballs for season
- around 3-6 baseballs during playoff games
- total of 30 baseballs
So for the entire league, an oversimplified math works out to be:
- Assuming 50-60 rec teams (T-ball to Babe Ruth) for Spring and 40 teams for Fall
- A rec league will purchase roughly 250 boxes of age appropriate baseballs for the year
- The league will purchase additional 50 boxes for insurance (creating more teams than projected, etc.)
- 300 boxes of baseballs works out to be 3,600 baseballs
- A rec league will usually spend on average $35 per dozen or $10,500 on baseballs every year!
Colleges and Junior (Community) Colleges
On June 16, 2018, a battle between the North Carolina Tar Heels and Oregon State Beavers at the TD Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Nebraska lasted more than 4 hours and in the process, consumed more than seven dozen baseballs (typical CWS game uses 60-65 baseballs).
Thankfully, the College World Series (CWS) organizers at the TD Ameritrade Park was ready because they started the world series with 175 dozen game balls and 96 dozen practice balls.
Baseballs used in College World Series games
The practice and game balls used in College World Series are identical EXCEPT that games balls are printed with a logo.
As per NCAA, the balls are allocated to each teams on Friday before the start of the CWS when each team receive 12 boxes of practice balls in four buckets.
During that same time, the grounds crew will prepare 30 boxes of game balls by lightly rubbing Lena Backburn Baseball Rubbing Mud (as they do in the MLB)
Roughly 15 to 20 boxes of baseballs are left unused at the end of the CWS. They are usually given to the members of the grounds crew of NCAA staff members as keepsakes or donated to a local charity
How many baseballs are used in a college game?
Based on anecdotal information gathered, below is a list of the estimated baseballs used by various college teams:
- 30-35 baseballs per game per team (i.e total of 60-70 baseballs between 2 teams in a game)
- There are approximately 56 games in a regular season = 1,960 baseballs or 165 boxes per team
- There are 299 D1 teams = 586,040 baseballs or 48,837 boxes
- There are 274 D2 teams = 537,040 baseballs or 44,754 boxes
- There are 389 D3 teams = 762,440 baseballs or 65,537 boxes
- There are 189 JUCO D1 teams = 370,440 baseballs or 30,870 boxes
- There are 118 JUCO D2 teams = 231,280 baseballs or 19,273 boxes
- There are 98 JUCO D3 teams = 192,080 baseballs or 16,000 boxes
So in short, a very rough estimate of the total number of baseballs used in college games(**) is a staggering 2,679,320 baseballs every year or 223,276 cases!
If you were to stack the boxes on top of each other, they will be approximately 16 miles long!
** Playoff game balls are not included due to NCAA D1 CWS utilizing double-elimination rounds at the regional level
Professional Baseball Leagues
In the latest MLB Umpire Manual, Rule 3.0.1: d stipulates that “…the home club have at least one dozen regulation reserve balls are immediately available for use if required…”
In reality, a home team usually prepares many more boxes than the required minimum.
Independent and amateur leagues will usually prepare the fewest number of game balls but the MiLB and MLB team will usually prepared eight to twelve dozen baseballs.
Grounds crew for the home team usually prepares the game balls by applying Lena Blackburn Rubbing Mud to new baseballs (by the way, umpires no longer do this).
Each stadium will also have hundreds of boxes of game balls (and practice balls) locked in a storage room, ready to be prepared on moments notice.
Guessing Game
The number of baseballs used in a game is highly speculative as it depends on numerous factors like if a pitcher is a breaking pitch specialist, where balls end up in dirt more often than fastball pitchers. If offense is on a hot streak, more baseballs will be used during the game.
Independent Baseball League
Independent Baseball Leagues operate in smaller markets with considerably less financial stability than MiLB and MLB.
Then it’s no surprise that many independent leagues try to save money by not purchasing as many balls.
- American Association of Professional Baseball
- Approximately 35-45 baseballs per game per team (or 70-90 baseballs between 2 teams per game)
- 4,500 baseballs per regular season (100 games)
- 54,000 baseballs for the league during regular season (12 teams)
- Atlantic League of Professional Baseball
- Approximately 45-55 baseballs per game per team (or 90-110 baseballs between 2 teams per game)
- 6,930 baseballs per regular season (126 games)
- 69,300 baseballs for the league during regular season (10 teams)
- Empire Professional Baseball League
- Approximately 30-40 baseballs per game per team (or 60-80 baseballs between 2 teams per game)
- 2,600 baseballs per regular season (65 games)
- 15,600 baseballs for the league during regular season (6 teams)
- Frontier League
- Approximately 35-40 baseballs per game per team (or 70-80 baseballs between 2 teams per game)
- 2,600 baseballs per regular season (65 games)
- 39,300 baseballs for the league during regular season (15 teams)
- Pecos League
- Approximately 6-12 baseballs per game per team (or 12-24 baseballs between 2 teams per game)
- 2,600 baseballs per regular season (65 games)
- 41,600 baseballs for the league during regular season (16 teams)
- Pioneer League
- Approximately 35-45 baseballs per game per team (or 70-90 baseballs between 2 teams per game)
- 4,320 baseballs per regular season (96 games)
- 43,200 baseballs for the league during regular season (10 teams)
- United States Professional Baseball League
- Approximately 12-24 baseballs per game per team (or 24-48 baseballs between 2 teams per game)
- 1,800 baseballs per regular season (75 games)
- 7,200 baseballs for the league during regular season (4 teams)
Minor League Baseball (MiLB Rookie, High/Low A, Double A)
Minor league baseball games are nine innings long just like the MLB games. But MiLB does not go through the number of baseballs like the MLB because they are kept in the game a longer.
A ball scuffed up from that pitch in the dirt? Throw it back in. A ball fouled off to a screen? No problem.
In addition, the majority of Rookie, High/Low A and AA balls have slightly thicker leather and stitching making these baseballs more durable than the balls used in AAA/MLB.
Because of this, a typical MiLB game is estimated to use 4 to 6 boxes of baseballs
- Rookie (Dominican Summer League)
- 46 teams, 72 games
- 119,232 baseballs or 9,936 boxes
- Rookie (Arizona League)
- 18 teams, 60 games
- 38,880 baseballs or 3,240 boxes
- Rookie (Arizona League, Florida League)
- 18 teams, 60 games
- 38,880 baseballs or 3,240 boxes
- Low-A (Class A)
- 30 teams, 132 games
- 142,560 baseballs or 11,880 boxes
- High-A (Class A+)
- 30 teams, 132 games
- 142,560 baseballs or 11,880 boxes
- Double-A
- 30 teams, 138 games
- 149,040 baseballs or 12,420 boxes
In total, MiLB teams (excluding Triple-A) uses approximately 631,152 (or 52,596 boxes) baseballs during regular season!
MiLB Triple-A and Major League Baseball (MLB)
During 1970s and 1980s, most players were discouraged by MLB owners to hand out the game balls as souvenirs between games so the only way to get one was through catching a home run ball or foul ball.
However all that changed after the strike of 1994-1995 when the owners were desperate to bring back fans stadiums. They realized that giving away balls was an effective way to “reward” and grow future fan base.
So what was once a rare treat is now a common sight at every single MLB games where players toss game balls in to the stand between half innings.
- Triple-A (MiLB)
- 30 teams, 144 games
- 155,520 baseballs or 12,960 boxesA
- American League (MLB AL)
- 15 teams, 162 games
- 87,480 baseballs or 7,290 boxes
- National League (MLB NL) – 15 teams
- 15 teams, 162 games
- 87,480 baseballs or 7,290 boxes
Fun Facts
Who is the most generous MLB player with game balls?
- Ten good guys in MLB (according to bleacherreports) are: Anthony Rizzo, RA Dickey, Adam Jones, Clayton Kershaw, Curtis Granderson, Joe Maddon, Andrew McCutchen, Joe Mauer, Robinson Cano and Mike Trout
Where Can I get the baseball signed by a player?
- Jeff Gundlach wrote an excellent piece with advice from his friend Brent Lillibridge who happens to be a former MLB player
Who is the most stingy MLB player with game balls?
How many buckets of Lena Blackburn Rubbing Mud is produced each year?
How many baseballs were in the 2019, 2020 and 20201 World Series?
Which player hit the most number of foul balls during a regular season game?
Since MLB started keeping the accurate pitch count, Brandon Belt of San Francisco Giants faced unfathomable 21-pitches at his at-bat against Angels pitcher Jaime Barria lasting over 13 minutes (16 total foul balls)!
Belt’s pitch counts were:
- Foul, Ball (0-1), Strike swinging (0-2), Foul (0-2), Foul (0-2), Ball (1-2), Foul (1-2)
- Foul (1-2), Ball (2-2), Pickoff attempt (2-2), Foul (2-2), Pickoff attempt (2-2), Foul (2-2)
- Foul (2-2), Foul (2-2), Foul (2-2), Foul (2-2), Pickoff attempt, Foul (2-2), Foul (2-2)
- Foul (2-2), Pickoff attempt (2-2), Foul (2-2), Foul (2-2), Belt lined out to right.
Belt ended up seeing a total of 40 pitches in five plate appearances that day, including 22 foul balls with a two-strike count
Before 1988, Luke Appling who played or the White Sox from 1930 to 1950, was the undisputed “foul ball king”