Lena Blackburne
Always hustling and full of pep, Russell “Lena” Blackburne was a superb defensive infielder from 1908 to 1926. Though a solid hitter in the minors, he struggled to hit major-league pitching. After his playing career ended, he served for three decades as a coach, manager, and scout. He is perhaps best known for a unique contribution he made to the game: supplying a muddy concoction for removing the slippery sheen from new baseballs.
Connie Mack, manager of the Philadelphia Athletics, signed Blackburne in the fall of 1907 and farmed him out to the 1908 Worcester, Massachusetts, team of the Class B New England League. Blackburne was a right-handed batter and thrower. He was quite lanky at 5-feet-11 and 160 pounds, and was called Leaner, Slivers, and Slats by Jesse Burkett, the Worcester manager. The nickname “Leaner” was repeated by Worcester fans with a New England accent and became “Lena,” a sobriquet that would stick with Blackburne for the rest of his life.
In 1912 Blackburne lost out to Buck Weaver, a 21-year-old rookie, for the shortstop position on the White Sox and was traded on August 9 to the Milwaukee Brewers for Ray Schalk, a 19-year-old catcher who would go on to have a Hall of Fame career for the Sox. Hugh Duffy managed the 1912 Brewers, and he was glad to give his former player another chance. Blackburne responded by batting .286 in 31 games. The next year, with Harry “Pep” Clark as manager, the Brewers won their first American Association pennant. Blackburne hit .264 in 165 games for the 1913 Brewers.
The White Sox reacquired Blackburne in 1914 and moved him to second base, alongside Weaver at short. Blackburne quickly adapted to the new position. He led American League second basemen in assists, and his .963 fielding percentage ranked second at the position, behind only the .970 rate achieved by Philadelphia’s Eddie Collins, the league MVP. Blackburne’s .222 batting average was underwhelming, but he contributed in other ways. He led the White Sox with 66 walks and stole the second most bases on the club with 25, and his 31 sacrifice hits were tied for fourth most in the league.
In the offseason, the White Sox acquired the great second baseman, Eddie Collins, from the Athletics, so Blackburne moved to third base in 1915. With Jack Fournier at first base, Eddie Collins at second, Buck Weaver at short, and Blackburne at third, the White Sox infield was regarded as one of the finest in baseball. Pitcher Red Faber, who won 24 games for the team, certainly appreciated them. Years later, he said, “Buck Weaver and Lena Blackburne were two I knew who never wanted to leave the field, not even in practice.” But after Blackburne hit only .216 in 1915, the White Sox sold his contract to the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League.
Blackburne led International League third basemen in fielding percentage in 1916 and 1917, and his batting average was respectable both seasons: .279 in 1916 and .266 the following year. The 1918 Reds were managed by Christy Mathewson. Blackburne became the team’s shortstop and again excelled in the field, leading the National League in double plays by a shortstop (72) and recording the second highest fielding percentage at the position (.938). On July 25, in the second game of a doubleheader at Boston, Blackburne teamed with Reds first baseman Hal Chase on a triple play.
In the offseason, Blackburne worked at a New York shipyard at the tail end of World War I. In 1919 he played third base for the Braves and Philadelphia Phillies, but he hit only .199 for the Phillies, and the team sold his contract to the Toronto Maple Leafs in February of 1920. For the next two seasons, Blackburne played for the last-place Little Rock Travelers of the Southern Association, and he managed the team in 1925. That year he discovered Bill Dickey, a future Hall of Famer, who at the time was an 18-year-old catcher. In a semipro game, Dickey fielded a bunt and rifled a throw to first base that struck the right-field fence on one bounce. “Lena knew he had seen one of the greatest throwing arms in baseball and he wasted no time in signing Dickey to a Little Rock contract.”
He joined Connie Mack’s staff in 1933, and served for many years as a coach of the Philadelphia Athletics. He also scouted for the Athletics and managed several of their minor-league affiliates, including the 1944 and 1945 Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Red Roses, who won consecutive Interstate League championships. Teenage Nellie Fox was a member of those Lancaster teams and benefited from Blackburne’s mentoring.
In the late 1930s, umpire Harry Geisel complained to Blackburne about the difficulty in removing the slickness from new baseballs, which was one of the duties of umpires before a game. The glossy sheen on a new ball makes it hard to get a good grip on it.
Blackburne solved the problem. He dug up some mud at low tide from the bottom of Pennsauken Creek near his Palmyra home. He filtered the mud to remove any stones, and he added a secret ingredient that gave it the consistency of cold cream and prevented it from staining the ball. When rubbed on a new baseball, the muddy concoction worked like magic, removing the slippery sheen without discoloring the ball. Soon teams in major and minor leagues were purchasing cans of Blackburne’s “rubbing mud.” He shared the money he earned with his wife, who jokingly referred to it as her “mud money.”
Blackburne marketed his idea, and by 1938, he was supplying the mud to all American League teams; because Blackburne was a diehard American League fan, he refused to sell the mud to National League teams until the mid-1950s. Since then, every major and minor league team has used only his product. The mud is still collected today, from a new secret location.
One container, a little more than 16 ounces, will usually last a season. Blackburne's contribution to the game has earned him a mention in the Baseball Hall Of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
