Report: MLB wants a baseball with natural tack to eliminate the need for foreign substances

Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred wants to improve the game by implementing a pitch clock, changing the strike zone and limiting mound visits.

Now he wants to test a tackier ball, according to Yahoo Sports.

MLB has reportedly commissioned Rawlings to manufacture a ball with more natural tack on the leather -- to eliminate the need for foreign substances like pine tar and sun screen.

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“We think we’re close now,” Mike Thompson, an executive vice president at Rawlings, told Yahoo Sports. “We’re just waiting for MLB to give us the go-ahead on when they want it.”

Pitchers commonly resort to rubbing dirt, sweat, sun screen and even pine tar into the ball, especially on cold days, to improve their grip. While it's a widely common practice, it's rarely enforced save for blatant situations.

In April 2014, New York Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda was caught with pine tar on his neck against the Boston Red Sox and was subsequently ejected and suspended 10 games for use of foreign substances.

Last year Rawlings supplied several experimental balls to the Arizona Fall League to gather research. While still in the beginning stages of development, the earliest the new balls would be used if approved would be in 2018.

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