Lena Blackburne

"Russell Aubrey 'Lena' Blackburne (October 23, 1886 – February 29, 1968) was an American baseball infielder, manager, coach and scout in Major League Baseball. ... Blackburne made an unusual and valuable contribution to baseball when he discovered a special use for the clay from the Delaware River to take the shine off of baseballs before each game. At the time, the mid-1930s, baseball teams used a variety of substances to rub baseballs: tobacco juice, shoe polish, dirt from the baseball field or a combination, but nothing they tried gave the balls the right look or feel. Blackburne searched for the perfect rubbing compound until one day, he found a mud that he liked close to home."
Wikipedia

Lena Blackburne’s Playing Days
"... Russell Aubrey Blackburne, to provide his given name, spent 1910 through 1919 as a major league baseball player, shifting from shortstop to second to third, and hitting with only occasional success. But his time in the big leagues that decade was very sporadic: Blackburne was with the White Sox in 1910 for a half-season’s worth of games, including the first one at Comiskey Park: he had the Sox’s first two hits there. Lena was with the Sox again in 1912 for five games and one official at-bat. Lena came back to the Sox in 1914 and 1915, then reappeared in the majors with the Reds in 1918. He must be one of very few to have played in the 1910s for both the Reds and the White Sox, but only in the years before they met for the Black Sox Series of 1919. He spent that year with the Braves and Phillies, and that seemed to be the end of his big league career."
Seamheads

Baseball Rubbing Mud

"Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud is mud used to allow pitchers better control and a firmer grip over the balls used in the sport of baseball. Before Baseball Rubbing Mud, baseballs were rubbed in a mixture of water and infield dirt, but this method usually discolored the ball's leather surface. Other alternatives at the time were tobacco juice, shoe polish, and dirt from under stadium bleachers. They were able to successfully take off the sheen from baseballs, but at the same time, they also damaged and scratched a ball's leather. While Lena Blackburne was a third-base coach for the Philadelphia Athletics baseball team, an umpire complained to him about the method used at the time, prompting Blackburne to set out in search of better mud to use to rub against baseballs in 1938. Later that decade, Blackburne discovered the rubbing mud's location (said to be 'near' Palmyra, New Jersey) and founded the company that he used to sell it."
Wikipedia

"... Blackburne took on the challenge. Next time he returned to his home in Burlington County, he checked out the mud along tributaries of the Delaware River until he found some muck (the whereabouts of the mud hole is still a dark secret) with a texture he felt would do the job. Taking a batch to the Athletics' field house, he rubbed some balls with the stuff. It worked like a charm! What's more, it had no odor and didn't turn the balls black. The umpires were happy, and Lena Blackburne was in the mud supply business."
Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud

Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud That Changed Baseball
"Lena Blackburne loved baseball. He watched it, he played it, he coached it. But he didn't love the ways players broke in new baseballs. Tired of soggy, blackened, stinky baseballs, he found a better way. Thanks to a well-timed fishing trip and a top-secret mud recipe, Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud was born. For seventy five years, baseball teams have used Lena's magic mud to prepare baseballs before every game. Read the story of how Lena's mud went from a riverbank to the major leagues and all the way to the Hall of Fame."
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