Have you ever noticed while watching an MLB game that any pitch that hits the ground, the catcher will automatically hold the ball up for the umpire, who catches the scratch ball while giving the catcher a new baseball, then throws the ball out. scraped into the home team dugout. . Have you ever wondered why?

Pitchers at the Major League level are so talented that any scratch on the baseball, however small, due to wind resistance, could create more movement in the baseball when it is thrown, giving it giving the pitcher an unfair advantage over the batter.

This seems like a reasonable explanation for throwing hundreds of baseballs, per team, out of play over the course of a season. Since scratch balls are always thrown toward the home team’s dugout, it’s safe to assume that the balls are used by the team in batting practice, as well as on and off the field drills.

From time to time, especially after a player hits a home run or other major hit, television cameras will pan into the dugout showing the players’ celebratory activities. During these bench scans, it is not unusual to see a police officer or security guard sitting inside the bench with the players.

Unfortunately, with the state of violence in the world today, it makes a lot of sense to have an official stationed inside the dugout to protect the players from a rogue fan who may try to enter the dugout from the field.

Until yesterday I firmly believed that these self-deduced explanations for the two events were entirely true. I want to say that my explanations are rational and make perfect logical sense, but embarrassingly for me, only partially correct. In fact, if I were pressed for accuracy, I would have to admit, very slightly correct.

So what is the precise explanation for these two issues? Ironically, both are part of the answer. This is wild, let me explain.

You were right about the scratchy part. Baseballs are considered unusable after falling to the ground, although that raises the question of why not all baseballs are discarded after being put into play.

Baseballs are tossed into the home team dugout anyway, but not to be used for batting practice or infield/outfield drills, but are turned over to the official in the dugout for official registration, tagging and ball identification. Ironically, the official is in the dugout for safety reasons, but he must protect the striped baseballs, not the players.

The official files a report on each baseball which includes, but is not limited to, the date of the game, the pitch count when the ball was out, and who was the batter at the time.

The MLB then places these baseballs under tight security and transfers them to New York City, where they are auctioned off. This identical scenario occurs in every major league baseball park, every game, all season long.

I’m told there’s a huge demand for these baseballs from fans who came to the game for some important reason, like they proposed at the game, wife was announced pregnant and whatever, whatever.

It’s not every day that I announce to the world that I am wrong, actually terribly wrong, about something, but this intrigued me so much that I had to let everyone know.

The only thing worse now is that everyone but me knew this.