Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
Spitting image destined to disappear
Players’ discharge likely to be among prohibited actions
One crisp California evening last year, Jose Altuve encountered another stressful moment in a season full of them. He faced Oakland reliever Blake Treinen in the seventh inning of a tie game between the Astros and Athletics. The go-ahead run stood at first base. Two were out.
One of the Astros’ antsiest players at the plate, Altuve constantly steps out of the batter’s box and readjusts his batting gloves. He almost always removes his helmet between pitches to wipe his brow, take a breath and reset his focus.
When the six-time All-Star re-enters the batter’s box, he holds his bat toward the pitcher, twirls it and finally readies himself to hit.
Somewhere in the middle of this ritual, Altuve spits. It might be while he tightens his gloves or perhaps when the helmet is off. Sometimes it’s hardly noticeable, obscured by the bat he’s holding or the arm covering his mouth.
Altuve saw eight pitches from Treinen before striking out. Television cameras captured him spitting before seven of them.
Nasty to most, spitting is natural for ballplayers, men who may spend months chomping on gum, cracking sunflower seeds or chewing tobacco. Even those who play without such habits cannot resist.
Spitting is part of baseball’s pageantry, mimicked by Little Leaguers who hope to one day saturate a big league field with their saliva. Thus, the cycle continues, ensuring that even as the game changes, this constant remains.
For Major League Baseball to return in 2020, it must momentarily stop.
The league sent nearly 70 pages worth of safety proposals and protocols to the players association last week. Both sides continue to negotiate a possible return from the coronavirus pandemic. Reports indicated this was just a draft, with modifications possible during meetings with the union.
Spitting and licking fingers are on a long list of prohibited behaviors. Reasons are obvious, but skepticism remains that such measures will be followed. How would they even be enforced?
Routine behavior
High-fives, hugs, chest bumps and any other physical contact is also discouraged in MLB’s policy. But those acts require some semblance of planning — even if it’s just a second or two. Spitting can be done almost unconsciously.
Players have done it without reprimand for so long that it’s worth wondering if they even comprehend their actions in the moment. Most pitchers who lick their hands between throws do so as part of a long-established routine.
Major league rules allow pitchers to lick or blow on their hands, but they cannot do so while on the rubber and must clearly wipe their hand before delivering the baseball. Pitchers utilize their spit to gain a better grip on the ball. A rosin bag could accomplish the task in 2020, but pitchers are meticulous. They become entrenched in what works.
So how hard will it be for ballplayers to break these habits? Analyzation of two Astros games from the 2019 season offers a glimpse. Altuve and pitcher Zack Greinke might require a concentrated effort to curtail their frequency. Justin Verlander and Michael Brantley seem to not spit at all. Most other Astros fall somewhere in the middle.
The Chronicle studied two Astros games — an extra-inning loss at Oakland on Aug. 16 and Game 7 of the World Series against the Nationals. One was played outdoors and the other under Minute Maid Park’s roof. One was a dull game during the dog days. The other obviously carried more stress.
In the August game, tracking stopped after nine innings so as not to skew the numbers. The television broadcast still caught 55 instances when Astros players either spit, licked themselves or touched their mouths — presumably illicit activities in 2020. In Game 7, the Fox broadcast showed 60 such instances.
Altuve accounted for 18 of the 55 instances against the A’s. His profile does afford him much more camera coverage, but other top-of-the-order hitters — George Springer and Yordan Alvarez — combined for six spits. Brantley didn’t spit in either game.
The numbers are not at all representative. Encapsulating this immense problem with only broadcast footage is impossible.
Cameras do not focus on the dugout, where most of the reserves are enjoying sunflower seeds. Some hitters walk in, grab a cup of water and rinse their mouths out onto the dugout floor. That the camera focuses so much on the pitcher and hitter takes away from the fielders behind them, all of whom could be spitting.
Major League Baseball’s proposal would ban communal water jugs in the dugout and prohibit sunflower seeds or chewing tobacco in “restricted areas.” All were readily available on the two 2019 evenings studied this week.
Initially, the games were picked because of the starting pitchers —
Verlander against the A’s and Greinke against the Nationals. Both were dominant, but only one needed salivary support.
During his 6⅔ innings, Greinke licked his fingers 16 times. He spit before the first pitch in the first inning. Thirteen other times, Greinke blew inside his balled-up fist or bit near his fingertips, even provoking Fox analyst John Smoltz to provide commentary.
“It’s a little cool here in the dome,” Smoltz noted. “May see some pitchers blowing in their hands.”
Reliever Joe Smith did it twice in the top of the eighth inning. Setup man Ryan Pressly and closer Roberto Osuna did not do it at all — at least not in view of the TV cameras. Pressly and Osuna also pitched in Oakland, where neither spit nor licked himself.
In seven innings against the A’s on a 69-degree night, Verlander needed just three blows into his fist over the course of 101 pitches. He favored rubbing the bill of his cap with his right hand and wiping it on his pant leg. Verlander struck out 11 and yielded two earned runs.
Teammates accounted for 50 of the other spitting sequences. Alex Bregman spit four times during one sixth-inning plate appearance. After working a walk, Bregman spit upon his arrival at first base, where coach Don Kelly leaned toward his ear to offer intel. That, too, could be prohibited in accordance with social distancing guidelines.
Don’t cross enemy lines
Bregman and shortstop Carlos Correa fraternized with Oakland shortstop Marcus Semien after he struck a double in the fourth. One item in baseball’s safety proposal reportedly encourages fielders to “retreat several steps away from the baserunner” when a ball is not in play.
The same can be said for base coaches, who cannot high-five players or lean close to offer information. The edicts seem preposterous but, in the middle of a pandemic, may be necessary.
If baseball does return in 2020, it will look nothing like the final game of 2019. The images of that night in Minute Maid Park remain seared in the minds of most Houstonians.
Even down four runs to the Nationals in the ninth inning, the Astros sent up the top of their order. Hope remained. Altuve’s three-pitch strikeout against Daniel Hudson sapped all of it. He swung through the third pitch and cursed himself. And on the way back to the dugout, as the camera zoomed in, he spit.