Lena Blackburne appears in the T206 set with the Providence Grays, with whom he played in 1909 as a 22 year-old. He spent parts of the next five seasons with the Chicago White Sox before bouncing around the National League with Cincinnati, Boston, and Philadelphia in 1918-19. He is credited with playing one game with the White Sox in 1927, and another single game with the Sox in 1929, when he was the manager of the club. Blackburne managed the White Sox in 1928-29, to a 99-133 record over that span.
Clearly this article is not going to be about his playing days, though he was a baseball lifer who had a lengthy career as a coach and manager in both the Major and Minor Leagues. In addition to his managerial record shown below, he served as a coach on Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics ball clubs for the better part of 16 years between 1933 and 1948 (1933 through 1938, as well as 1940, 1942, 1943, 1947, and 1948).
Though his playing career was fairly nondescript, Blackburne left a lasting imprint on the game of baseball.
It all began in 1938 when an umpire complained to Lena Blackburne, a third base coach for the old Philadelphia Athletics, about the sorry condition of the baseballs used by the American League. Back then a ball was prepped simply with mud made of water and dirt from the playing field. The result? The ball’s cover was too soft, leaving it open for tampering. Something was needed to take off the shine but not soften the cover.
-http://baseballrubbingmud.com
Blackburne decided to try to tackle the problem. He returned to New Jersey and combed the tributaries of the Delaware River, looking for the perfect consistency of mud to rub down a baseball without making it wet. After some searching, he found just what he was looking for. He brought some of the mud to the ballpark and found that it worked perfectly. It took the sheen off the ball and allowed for an easier grip without adding water weight. It also had no odor, and didn’t turn the balls black.
Thus, Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud was born. By the end of 1938, every American League team was using his Rubbing Mud to prepare baseballs for use in games. Though the A.L. was using the mud in 1938, it wasn’t until the mid 1950’s that the National League began to use it. It wasn’t that the N.L. was slow to adopt the product though. Blackburne was a staunch American League supporter, and refused to sell his product to the National League for almost two decades.
The business still exists today, supplying Rubbing Mud to all MLB and MiLB teams. Small containers are available for sale to the general public. Upon Blackburne’s death in 1968, the company was willed to his close friend John Haas. Haas eventually turned the business over to his son-in-law Burns Bintliff. The company is currently run by Burns’ son Jim.
The exact spot where the mud is sourced remains a closely guarded secret.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Lena_Blackburne
http://baseballrubbingmud.com
Photos courtesy of baseballrubbingmud.com
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