# What is the black lines under baseball player's eyes.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-black-lines-under-baseball-players-eyes/268294>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 8, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-black-lines-under-baseball-players-eyes/268294 "2004-10-08T23:50:09Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-black-lines-under-baseball-players-eyes/268294/1 "2004-10-08T23:50:09Z")

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I asked my husband, the home sport-guru and he told me to ‘ask the dopers’. 😉

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**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-black-lines-under-baseball-players-eyes/268294/2 "2004-10-08T23:53:19Z")

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If it’s actually grease paint (as it was originally), it decreases glare from the sun or stadium lighting. If it’s a sticker (as is becoming more and more common), they _think_ it decreases glare.

[Why the black greasepaint under athletes’ eyes?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=273459&highlight=black+baseball)

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**Author:** ![Mr.Roboto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/76d3ee/32.png) [@Mr.Roboto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Roboto)\
**Post date:** [October 9, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-black-lines-under-baseball-players-eyes/268294/3 "2004-10-09T01:29:57Z")

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Old school guys use burnt cork…  
It does reduce glare especially if you have high cheekbones

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**Author:** ![BlackNGold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@BlackNGold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackNGold)\
**Post date:** [October 10, 2004, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-black-lines-under-baseball-players-eyes/268294/4 "2004-10-10T16:32:09Z")

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According to Tony Kornheiser it’s called “lampblack”, I assume from the soot that collected on the globes of burning lamps. I would think this would have a lower albedo than grease.

Really hoping I used the word albedo correctly…