Comment by SubiculumCode

Here is my take. In long past times, baseballs were reused until warn out, and those that went into the stands were returned. This allowed the balls to get naturally bruised up, which inadvertently gave pitchers more (unpredictable) movement than today's clean, unused baseballs. Because of this, old pitchers may not have had to throw with as much elbow rotation as today's pitchers do to get effective levels of movement. This lower spin requirements meant less strain on arms of pitchers, letting them throw more innings and longer games than you typically see in today's baseball. Giving that pitcher's elbows are going out at record frequencies in the MLB in the last decade, I'm all for allowing pitchers to rough up balls some, moreover, enhance it beyond what they can do now. Optimally, I think the league should intentionally texture-ize parts of the ball to give pictures the spin they need, and thus help minimize injury risk.