For more than 80 years, baseball has relied on a stash of special mud to take the shine off balls’ slick leather and give fielders a better grip. The substance is rubbed on every baseball before every major league game.

While it can’t be credited with winning the Los Angeles Dodgers their eighth World Series championship, baseball’s “magic mud” is the stuff of lore. Each Major League Baseball (MLB) team’s equipment manager applies it to every game ball. It improves the grip on the ball, can dull the shine on a new ball, and keep it from getting damaged.

For decades, all the balls used in Major League Baseball have been coated with mud harvested from a secret spot along a Delaware River tributary in New Jersey. Only a few people knew of the exact location and until recently,