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After a middling career as an infielder from 1910-1929, Lena Blackburne continued a life in baseball as a coach, manager and scout. Despite a lifetime in the game, Blackburne’s most lasting contribution to baseball is mud.

From baseball’s inception until the mid-1930s, teams used all kinds of substances — shoe polish, baseball field dirt, tobacco juice — to rub down balls before they were game ready. Nothing used gave the balls the desired feel and look. That’s where Blackburne comes in.

He trekked to the nearby Delaware River, retrieving mud from its banks. After marketing it to Major League teams, franchises began using Blackburne’s special mud to rub down their balls. By 1938 all American League teams were using it.

A lifetime AL player, coach, scout, and manager, Blackburne refused to sell his mud to NL teams at first. Finally in the mid-1950s, Blackburne availed his mud to the National League. Since then, every major and minor league team in America uses Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud.

Shown here is an autograph of Lena Blackburne on a 3×5 card. The little-known man who spent a lifetime in the game continues to have an impact on every professional game to this day.

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With every professional baseball league and team in America using Lena Blackburne rubbing mud, it’s easy to forget that the man himself was a Major League Baseball player.

Blackburne broke in with Charles Comiskey‘s White Sox in 1910 and spent 6 of his 8 big league seasons in Chicago. Overall he played professionally for 21 years

The card shown above is a T-206 card of infielder Lena Blackburne posed in a fielding position.

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The reverse of Lena Blackburne’s T-206 card is shown above. Produced by The American Tobacco Company, the T-206 series cards were issued from 1909 through 1911 in cigarette and tobacco packs through 16 brands owned by the parent company.

Blackburne spent eight seasons in the big leagues, six with the Chicago White Sox and the others with Phillies, Braves, and Reds.