So here's my question...

I've noticed that the Mike Roger's balls that Michael Ammar uses have a nice aged look to them a lot like his nicely patina set of cups... Do you know if he treated them with something like a varnish or is it something that develops in time?

-Bryan

I noticed this too. My 1st thought is that they aged and got dirty over the years. 2 sets of Mike Rogers mini baseballs just sold this week on ebay in the 55-65 dollar range.
I missed out!

I was lucky to buy these balls from a Café member about 3 months ago.
After talking to his mom I finally recieved them.
They were in perfect condition with no aging.
I am sure Michael Ammar has aged them himself, just from useing them alot.


Eric

???

They are made of the same leather real baseballs are made from so sweat and dirt from handling will age them.
The balls Mike uses on his video are a special set Mike rogers made with leather supplied by one of the three magicians that asked him to make them.
I have doe skin that looks to be about the same color and Mike Rogers was goingot make me a set as well...unfortunatly he passed away before he could make them for me and I got the tanned hide back. Doe skin is harder towork with than the regular Baseball leather and Mike was going to charge me double for a 6 ball set with one of the balls being chopped.
Mobius

A young Café member that some of us had to do a follow up on his sales.
All is good now.

I remember this incident, or series of incidents, actually. From time to time someone will sign up on the Café and start to sell off various magic props he has. Then while in the process of selling his props, he gets sidetracked and forgets to mail out things he has gotten paid for. Eventually he quits answering e-mails. Sometimes this happens intentionally.

But cyberspace is not the anonymous cavern everyone thinks it is. And somewhere, somehow, someone will know where to look. It happened here, and various "customers" who had been stung knew a magic phrase that has saved many a would-be cheater from a life of crime -- "If you don't send me what I paid for, I will tell YOUR MOTHER."

It's amazing how well that works.

Too bad a good explanation can spoil a really interesting answer.

If memory serves me correct, Ammar has sets made of different colors and I heard some may have been made from deerskin...not sure if this is correct or not.

Bill - any comments?

Bryan Gilles,
You might want to try what the big leaguers use.
Blackburne Rubbing Mud.

Blackburne made an unusual and valuable contribution to baseball when he discovered a special use for the clay from the Delaware River to take the shine off of baseballs before each game. At the time, the mid-1930s, baseball teams used a variety of substances to rub baseballs: tobacco juice, shoe polish, dirt from the baseball field or a combination, but nothing they tried gave the balls the right look or feel. Blackburne searched for the perfect rubbing compound until one day, according to legend, he found mud he liked in a secret body of water. He marketed his idea, and by 1938, he was supplying the mud to all American League teams; because Blackburne was a die-hard 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. One container, a little more than 16 ounces, will usually last a season. The process of creating the mud was featured in a pilot episode of the television show Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lena_Blackburne

~John

There have been many different versions of these balls made for different customers. However, Mike Rogers' widow has quit having these balls made. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least being that the quality is not what it used to be.

There were red suede ones made for Chris Reeseman. There were others made in brown leather.

He also made a special few sets of just plain red leather as well.
I really miss Talking with Mike Rogers alot....he was always very friendly to talk with and would teach you just about anything if you asked.

Mike sold sets of the red suede balls (4 to a set $40) after the sets sold out or once chris had his sets. I think he had extra suede left over and made at least 6 extra sets. I bought four sets and sold off one set to a friend and broke up another set of them to a fellow magician that had one roll away during a routine.
The other two sets are used with R-N-T cups that I use to perform with.

the original set I got with my Silver Anniversary cups are still with those cups.

They have a very interesting feel ot them. You can just tell Mike Rogers Baseballs.
I will have to try out the mud on one of my sets of baseballs.
Mobius

Wow... a lot of really great information coming from this thread! Thanks to all who have contributed!

John- I'll look into that "mud"... great tip!

-Bryan