"The Phillies relief pitcher, aptly named John Boozer, was getting shelled, but the Phillies had already gone through about 6 relievers, so Boozer was taking one for the team. He threw the baseball in to his catcher about 5 times to get the plate umpire to change the ball. Each time, the umpire refused. There was a lot of yelling back and forth, and with a few hundred people left at the game, you could hear every word. Eventually, Gene Mauch trotted out from the Phillies dugout towards the mound. He asked for the ball; everyone thought he was tired of the charade and was pulling Boozer from the game. Then, Mauch dropped the baseball on the grass on the side of the mound, and started stomping on it with his left foot. Back in those days, everyone (the manager included) wore steel spikes on their shoes. Mauch ripped the baseball to shreads (similar to that baseball that the fictional Roy Hobbs hit in the movie, The Natural). He picked up the guts and the pieces of cowhide, walked over to the plate umpire, dropped the mess at the ump's feet and said, very loudly, 'My pitcher wants a new baseball.' The ump reaches in his bag, gets a new ball, tossed it to Boozer, and in the same motion, tossed Mauch out of the game." - Phillies fan Bob Lopeck on Pertaining to Motherhood Blog (Denise Marotta Lopes, 10/05/2011, 'Wednesday Wisdom – Baseball', Source)