Greetings fellow collectors!

Have you ever perused the autographed baseballs category and found yourself wondering exactly what type of baseball the autograph is on? Is it a real ball, or a replica? Genuine leather, or synthetic? What do the myriad of abbreviations mean? Here is a quick guide to help you understand and identify some of the most common types of baseballs out there. This is not a complete guide, and not all sellers may use these basic terms, so if you are ever unsure or have a question, contact the seller.

First, the Rawlings Company is the official producer/supplier of baseballs used in the major and minor leagues. Since the various Rawlings baseballs constitute the vast majority of autographed baseballs, I am going to stick with just Rawlings for the purpose of this article.

Baseballs used in Major League Baseball games:

ALCS = American League Championship Series Game Ball
ALDS = American League Division Series Baseball
ML or OML or OMLB or MLB = The official game ball of Major League Baseball, regular season
NLCS = National League Championship Series Game Ball
NLDS = National League Division Series Baseball 
OAL or AL = Official American League Game Ball
ONL or NL = Official National League Game Ball
AS = All Star Game Ball
WS = World Series Game Ball

*There are also many various commemorative game balls that have been produced/used, such as those commemorating Cal Ripken's consecutive games played streak, opening day game balls, and those used for the first and last games at various Major League ballparks.

Baseballs used by Minor League Baseball:

AAA = Triple-A Baseball
IL  = Triple-A International League
PCL = Triple-A Pacific Coast League

Not only does Rawlings produce the baseballs used in major league baseball games, they also produce a series of "Official League" baseballs. These are NOT used in official major league baseball games, they tend to be of lesser quality, but are popular due to being less costly to purchase:

ROML = Rawlings Official Major League Baseball. This ball tends to cause a lot of confusion. These are good quality, but are NOT used in MLB! These are "Major League Specifications" baseballs. They are genuine leather, same size/weight as a OMLB, but a shade lower in quality from the OMLB. Again, if you are ever unsure, ask the seller!

OL or ROLB = Rawlings Official League Baseball, these come in several levels of quality, see below for more information but typically unless they are numbered, they are the OLB1.

OL1 or ROLB1 - the highest quality of the OL balls, genuine leather but lower quality than major league baseballs
OL2 or ROLB2 - middle of the road quality, lower quality than the OLB1
OL3 or ROLB3 - recreational level baseballs, synthetic leather covers, not a good choice for autographs

Rawlings genuine leather baseballs, same ones used in major league baseball games, are always the most ideal as the quality of the leather does a much better job of holding the signatures. Baseballs that use anything other than genuine leather have a higher tendency of autograph fading, bleeding, etc. There are always exceptions as many factors figure into this such as the type of pen used (blue papermates are the most commonly used), ball condition, humidity, how the ball is store after the autograph is obtained, etc. As such, autographed authentic game balls tend to carry a higher price/value than the same player's autograph on non-authentic baseballs.

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Thanks!

Steve & Jen
OceanStateSports