World's Largest Ball of Paint

A baseball that a child painted blue on New Year's Day 1977 has become a sphere of paint that visitors to Alexandria, Indiana, can add to themselves. According to the official website, the owner let his three-year-old son paint the baseball, and the family and visitors have kept adding coats since. WJLT radio reported that the original plan was to cut the ball in half to see how it looked inside; the painting continued instead.

Guinness World Records lists the most layers of paint at approximately 17,994, as of June 2004, when the ball's circumference was 9 ft 1 in. The entry says the count was estimated from a core sample and that a gallon of paint covers 20 to 25 layers at that size. Later figures come from the owners and local media and vary. AFP reported in 2015 that the owner reckoned about 25,000 layers and that the ball measured 14 feet. WJLT radio reported in February 2025 more than 29,500 layers as of November 2024, nearly 11,000 pounds and a circumference above 14 feet. The owner's official website gives more than 30,000 layers, more than 11,500 pounds and a circumference of nearly 19 feet.