Searching for sticky stuff: MLB umps start checking pitchers

Jacob deGrom was stopped coming off the mound after retiring the side in order in the first inning, and chuckled as he handed his glove and cap over to the umpire. The New York Mets ace then undid his belt buckle as requested, showing there was no goop there either.

This was no sticky situation for the two-time National League Cy Young Award winner, only what is going to become a new norm for all professional pitchers.

The search is on for unauthorized foreign substances that pitchers can use to doctor baseballs, long against the rules but rarely enforced until now. The crackdown began Monday when major and minor league umpires started regular checks of all pitchers for tacky substances used to get a better grip on the balls, but can also increase the spin of the balls and make hitting them more difficult.

“I said, ‘What all do you guys need?’ ‘Glove, hat and belt,’ they said. I handed them that stuff and then went along my way,” said deGrom, the first to get inspected since he was the first pitcher to take the mound on the day baseball’s new enforcement directive went into effect. He started the first game of New York’s home doubleheader against Atlanta.

The Mets and Braves were among 14 Major League Baseball teams scheduled to play Monday, six days after a five-page memo to teams about the pending change in enforcement that followed what baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred called an extensive process of repeated warnings without effect.