<P> The mud originates from the New Jersey side of the Delaware River . The mud is cleaned and screened before sale . Each year Jim Bintliff visits the mud's source and returns with 1,000 pounds of it to store over the winter and sells it the following baseball season . He told Andres: </P> <P> If anybody happens to catch me in the act of harvesting mud, I come up with a story to give them a reason I'm putting mud in a bucket . I've told people I use it in my garden, I use it for my rose bushes, I use it for bee stings and poison ivy and any kind of story . </P> <P> Before all major - and minor - league baseball games, an umpire or clubhouse attendant rubs six dozen or more balls with the mud to give them a rougher surface, making them easier for pitchers to grip (MLB Rule 4.01 c). The rubbing mud's unique feature is that it is "very fine, like thick chocolate pudding", and it has been considered the "perfect baseball - rubbing mud". </P>

What do they do with used major league baseballs