It looks like that’s actually a good estimate.
Various sources I’m finding online indicate that an MLB game averages use of between 96 and 120 balls in a nine-inning game. As there are 2,430 games in an MLB season, that equates to somewhere between 233K and 292K balls per season.
Not that estimate. The numbers for balls used in places that are not MLB games I think was somewhat high. Mostly because they reuse the rejects from games in those other uses.
Ahhh, apologies for misunderstanding. Yes, I agree, for things like batting practice, warm-ups, etc., that they are predominantly reusing “rejected” game balls – though a certain percentage of game-used balls are lost forever: those which are hit into the stands, and those that get tossed into the stands by players.
That said, there are 120 teams in Minor League Baseball, each of which play somewhere between 132 (A) and 150 (AAA) games a season. So, that’s somewhere in the range of another 8,400 MiLB games a season; I have no idea how many (if any) of the balls that they use are “rejected” balls from MLB games.
I wouldn’t expect minor league teams to use rejects from the majors. But as I said above, minor leagues are more tollerant of scuffs on balls. So they use fewer balls per game. But they still have their own rejects which they use in the bullpen and for batting practice, etc.
This reminds me of someone’s reminiscence I once read about acquiring baseballs for use in playground games. When the ball used in the playground just got too worn out (the hide kept coming off), the kids would go down to the local minor league field and attempt to get a foul ball hit out of the stands. But the minor league team wanted those back, so they would pay other, older kids to return them. The amount paid wasn’t very much, something like a quarter or less per ball, but it was enough that the older kids didn’t want to lose any to the younger guys. If a younger kid got to a ball first, the older kids would just come up and take it away.
So the younger guys had to set up a relay. One would try to get to a ball before the older kids, and then throw it to another younger kid a ways away, who would in turn throw it to a third kid, etc. The kid who first got to the ball would probably take beating from the older guys, but at least they had a new ball.