[Splinte1941]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Brandon, correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't the balls produced for each season based on who was the league president at the beginning of the year, not the beginning of the season, and therefore 1989 ONL balls would bear Giamatti's name, not Bill White's (since Giamatti was still NL president on January 1, and named Commissioner on April 1).

To my mind, this would seem to be a reasonable assumption since there has to be some lead time to the production of the thousands of balls that would be used in games starting in early April. You can't name a new NL president on April 1, and then 2 days later on Opening Day have a truckload of balls show up ready for game use.

EDIT: See post below.