How many baseballs are used in an MLB game?

Have you ever watched a baseball game and thought to yourself, “How many of those things do they really need?”

By the looks of it, Major League Baseball goes through baseballs in a game like the average person does facial tissue in the heart of flu season.

As the years go on, it seems that more and more balls are being used because of the opportunities brought to organizations to make money. Teams are now selling game used memorabilia in the park and online. In some places, you can even take home a ball used in the game you are attending that day.

It takes about 120 baseballs to play a Major League Baseball game today

120 baseballs for nine innings of baseball seems a little excessive, yes? Of course you have your classic reasoning for needing so many baseballs. Home runs, foul balls, and your standard throwing a ball to a fan after the last out of an inning. But you also have warm-ups in between innings from the pitcher, the infield, and two in the out field. Pitchers are also getting more and more picky with the balls they want to use during the game. Sometimes, a ball will only see one or two pitches before making its exist just as quick as it entered.

If you think about the whole day of baseball a MLB team endures, you need ten times more baseballs than in the actual game. Teams use about 1,550 baseballs a day between workouts, bullpen sessions, and batting practice. And to think someone has to open each one of those individually wrapped balls and prepare them for their thirty seconds of fame.