There are so many baseballs used in an MLB game

You can't play a baseball game without the actual baseball.

In Major League Baseball, turns out you can't play a game without something like 100 baseballs.

If you watch a game in 2026, you'll quickly realize that this isn't like the old days, when they got through the game with just a few baseballs.

These days, a little dirt, or a ball in play, or any number of other reasons can get the baseball thrown out and a new one brought into the action.

Some baseballs last a single pitch. Once in a while, a pitcher gets a fresh ball thrown out to him and doesn't like the feel and discards it before throwing a single pitch.

Once upon a time, pitchers probably wanted dirt on the baseball to allow them to muck it up and make it move in funky ways.

Some hitters probably didn't mind a baseball that was just a little less shiny and slick and slippery coming out of the pitcher's hand, too.

But these days, there's a pearl or near-pearl thrown almost every pitch. That's just how it works in 2026.

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How many baseballs are used in an MLB game?

It's estimated that more than 100 baseballs are used in a single Major League Baseball game.

The Athletic did a study a few years ago that put the estimated range at between 96 and 120.

That's just an average game, too.

Any extra inning game is going to see that total rise higher. A game with lots of runs, lots of baserunners, lots of walks -- same deal, lots of baseballs.

MLB teams must have thousands of baseballs in the ballpark at any time, including just boxes and cases and buckets of new ones. They aren't going to run out any time soon.

Still, it feels like something is lost a little bit by starting fresh before many of the pitches. There's a character of the game that doesn't quite exist anymore with no dirt on the ball.

Maybe it makes for a cleaner game, or a prettier game, or something like that. But once in a while, maybe they should let a splotch of dirt stay on the baseball, just for old time's sake.

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