Best Practice Balls

I don't know what you're looking for in practice balls.

Since my son's a pitcher, I looked for balls that closely resembled the balls he'd be using. Believe it or not, there is a big difference to a pitcher in how the ball is made. It seems like the lower the level, the higher the seams.

I found the "house" balls from Western Athletic Supply had a pretty darn close feel and were very cheap compared to the big name balls. These balls are not "team" balls, but for my son's use only and therefore last quite well for my purposes. I bought 5 dozen last year. I put 2 dozen in the BP bucket and the rest are used only for pitching. After 4 or 5 bullpens, they go into the BP bucket too.

As far as hitting goes, they are not as good as the best balls, but they are wound and seem to be just as good as anything else for BP. I keep 2 BP buckets for my son. One has 50-100 of the old softies, waterlogged, sun baked or splitting seamed balls in it. We use that for wet days, work on the tee with the wood or composition bat, or if someone just wants a bucket to "mess around" with.

I try to keep 60-70 balls in the "good" BP bucket, replacing the junk as we find them. that's for serious BP. When he takes a full BP, he starts with the composition wood, then the regular wood, then his heavy metal and finally light metal bats. I don't want those 2-$300 bats boinking into crappy or heavy balls, so we keep that bucket pretty clean.

I'll give you a small hint if you're looking for "team" balls or if you plan on using the balls for a lot of fielding work, especially if the boys are on the big field. get the balls with the highest seams you can find. My kid can make a LL quality ball move like you won't believe, so I don't let him pitch with them. But, I'll use them if he wants fielding practice where he'll be throwing. The player will have to be much more careful about throwing the ball if it has a tendency to sail, which the high seams will do.