[robryan]

A somewhat related question, how come in baseball they are so happy to give away any ball that even goes remotely near the crowd? Wouldn't each ball be worth enough that they would want to cut down on the amount needed per game?

Here in Australia on cricket ball condition effects the game so you'd defiantly not want fans taking the ball and in AFL they don't want people taking the balls although they do switch balls around often during a match. I guess that would be virtually 0 chance that the player could get the 600th run ball back for himself?

[jasonkester]

The average lifespan of a baseball is something like 1.7 pitches. They bring hundreds of them to a game.

Pitchers go out of their way to mangle the balls in specific ways before they throw them, so even the ones that last a few tosses are in rough shape. You'll often see a pitcher simply throw a ball back to the catcher to have it replaced.

The math, by the way, is something like 10k fans @ $50/seat vs. 120 baseballs @ $0.75 wholesale. If there's any chance whatsoever that giving one to a kid in the stands will make him happy enough to come back for another game at any point in his life, it's well worth it.

[robryan]

Ah that's what I was wondering, how cheap a baseball they use at that level goes for. Had a feeling that it must not have been much.

[jasonkester]

Actually, I'm probably wrong above in saying that they cost the ballpark anything at all. I suspect the manufacturer pays Major League Baseball a lot of money every year for the privilege of supplying those balls.