Sticky note: MLB needs to be on ball
Maybe Rob Manfred can get this one right.
Maybe Major League Baseball can get ahead of another potential leaguewide cheating scandal, simultaneously protecting the integrity of a sport and the players who play a game for a very good living. Maybe.
But we know how these things usually go. Especially since 1998.
It was the steroid era. Then it was the sign-stealing era. Now, the whispers keep growing louder, teasing the spin-rate era.
And you thought the latter was just some new, fancy stat that seamheads obsessed over on baseball blogs and social-media
videos.
“This is going to be the next steroids of baseball ordeal, because it is cheating and it is performanceenhancing. The only way to get through it and to get it out of the game is if (pitchers) get checked every half inning,” Minnesota veteran third baseman Josh Donaldson told reporters last week. “If a new pitcher comes out, they get checked immediately by the umpire. Once they start doing that, it’ll be gone, and you’re going to start seeing offense come back into the game.”
Donaldson, a three-time All-Star and the 2015 American League MVP, also specifically mentioned Gerrit Cole by name.
Cole, who went 35-10 with a 2.68 ERA during two fantastic seasons with the 2018-19 Astros, had little specific to say Tuesday when asked about MLB’s newest controversy and the use of a sticky substance known as Spider Tack.
“I don’t quite know how to answer that, to be honest,” Cole told reporters. “There are customs and practices that have been passed down from older players to younger players, from the last generation of players to this generation of players, and I think there are some things that are certainly out of bounds in that regard.”
You’d think someone who signed a nine-year, $324 million deal to be an ace for the New York Yankees would have a little more insight into the art behind the art of pitching.
Then again, MLB has allowed this mess to mount, turning something once seen as modern and cool — rapidly increasing the spin of a ball to change its trajectory — into another state-of-the-game debate that now has frustrated hitters publicly barking at pitchers and umpires increasingly stuck in the middle of an on-field mess.
ESPN reported that the league is soon expected to start random in-game checks on pitchers, cracking down on the use of foreign substances and enforcing the rule book.
How many times have you seen something murky, seemingly sticky or obviously weird on a pitcher’s hat, glove, etc., in recent years, thanks to the upclose power of high-definition TV?
We can debate whether UFOs are real in 2021. But it’s harder than ever to ignore the fact that some pitchers are using a little extra something for strikezone firepower.
“Let’s go check the guys that are sitting there going into their glove every day with filthy stuff coming out, not some guy before he even steps on the mound with a spot on his hat,” St. Louis manager Mike Shildt said on May 26 after Cardinals reliever Giovanny Gallegos was forced to change caps due to an unknown substance.
Contemporary big league hitters also refuse to hit — or bunt — against the shift, despite four infielders often intentionally playing on the other side of the field. So this isn’t all on the guys throwing 100 mph heat.
I’m sure I’ll receive a few emails mentioning Gaylord Perry, Joe Niekro, Kenny Rogers, Mike Scott and all the things great pitchers have or haven’t done since the early 1900s.
Astros manager Dusty Baker said Wednesday that the league hadn’t asked him anything and, thus, “my opinion really has no effect or bearing on any of this.”
Then Baker answered a second question by sounding like someone who’s been around professional baseball for more than 50 years.
“It’s been a problem since the beginning of time,” said a smiling Baker, as his Astros prepared to face Boston inside Fenway Park. “There’s some guys in the Hall of Fame that it was known at that time that guys were using foreign substances, whether it was called slippery elm or whether it was pine tar or spitball or emery board. The Astros had a couple guys back in the day that got caught doing all kinds of things.
“I don’t know. Everybody is talking about the speed of the game — it’s going to slow the game down even more. I don’t know what we can do. I don’t know how enforceable it is, and the umpires have enough to worry about just calling balls and strikes.”
I agree with everything Baker said.
You also know too many hitters are striking out, yet games also last way too long. New York Mets starter Jacob deGrom, who has already won two National League Cy Young awards, holds a surreal 0.62 ERA that would make 1968 Bob Gibson jealous. And daily offense can be a serious struggle, despite all the modern advancements that favor hitting.
I made it this far without mentioning Trevor Bauer. But of course Bauer is in the middle of all of this, just like Cole. Just like every pitcher trying to find another reliable advantage against a hitter in the endless battle between an arm and a bat.
Manfred and MLB have two options right now. Enforce the written rules and protect the game or let the sport police itself.
All the bad recent history tells us baseball only stops cheating when it’s forced to do so.