Green’s Dictionary of Slang

sour-balled adj.

grumpy.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 62: sour-balled, adj. Dissatisfied.
1901		W. Irwin Love Sonnets of a Hoodlum XIX n.p.: The more my sourballed murmur, since I’ve seen [...] Mame and Murphy, diked to suit the part, And clinching fins in public, heart-to-heart.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 253: Don’t let that sour-balled puss muck up your life for you.
1957		(con. 1943) A. Myrer Big War 52: He had that sour-ball blue-Boston streak.
1969		L. Hadow Full Cycle 144: That sour-bellied mug!