Tarnation! A team can’t win big without the accusations flying
“If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’,” — Charles “Chili” Davis.
“If they ain’t accusing you of cheatin’, hell, you need to do better,” — Jerome “Chili-eatin” Solomon.
What with the Astros’ success this season, it was just a matter of time before the accusations started flying.
Granted, one would have expected them to come from frustrated hitters, who are struggling against the Astros’ dominating pitching staff, instead of a fellow pitcher who hasn’t faced them since May of 2017. Particularly a pitcher whose career record against the Astros is 7-0, which is more wins than he has against any other team.
But Trevor Bauer took to Twitter with some wink-wink allegations that the Astros’ outstanding pitching marks aren’t due to hard work alone.
“If only there was just a really quick way to increase spin rate,” Bauer tweeted. “Like what if you could trade for a player knowing that you could bump his spin rate a couple hundred rpm overnight.”
Basically, the higher the spin rate, the more likely a pitcher will get strikeouts because of the difficulty of hitting fastballs that
aren’t as easily dragged down by gravity.
What’s a really quick way to increase spin rate? Recently, Bauer tweeted that he could increase spin rate on his fastball (2250 rpm) by 400 rpm if he used pine tar, which is illegal in MLB.
“Pine tar is more of a competitive advantage on a given game than steroids are,” he wrote.
That’s a bold statement in itself, but directing such an accusation at the Astros, well, those are fighting words.
The Indians visit Minute Maid Park for a three-game series later this month.
“I roll my eyes at it,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “But I do think people need to sweep their own front porch, deal with their own situations, more than throw allegations around that are unfounded.
“Our guys are pretty good. They don’t need to be thrown under the bus like that.”
That’s the thing about baseball. When you’re as good as the Astros have been, it’s almost a given you’ll be thrown under the cheat bus.
Scott heard scufflebutt It was like that in 1986, too. Starter Mike Scott, who won the Cy Young that season, and closer Dave Smith were called out on a regular basis for allegedly scuffing baseballs.
Scott and Smith were so good that even Nolan Ryan was lumped in as a cheater, and as with the current Astros, the loudest complaint came from a pitcher, Reds starter Chris Welsh.
“Now, they’re allowing him to scuff the ball. … I couldn’t hit what he was throwing with a canoe paddle,” Welsh said.
After Scott had shut down the Mets, allowing just one run in two complete games of the 1986 NLCS, New York manager Davey Johnson invited media into his office, opened the bottom drawer of his deck, and pointed to a stack of baseballs.
The balls, Johnson claimed, were collected during the game at Shea Stadium, and each had an identical, unnatural, scuff mark.
If it were an episode of “Law and Order,” Johnson would have said, “The prosecution rests.”
But back in the good old days of the ’80s and ’90s, baseball didn’t go to court for on-the field cheating. That kind of foolishness didn’t find its way into the game until the government started chasing suspected steroid users.
Home run-hitting juicers have dominated talk of cheating in baseball for the last 15 years, but the pitcher’s mound is where most of the good stuff has always happened.
Spitballs, mudballs and Gaylord Perry’s famous Vaseline balls are part of the game’s charm to many.
Sneaking tools onto the mound to alter the ball’s appearance and flight has long been an art form.
Some pitchers have been known to wear belt buckles that were so sharp they didn’t need restaurant knives to cut into a postgame steak.
Emery University
There is no doubt that an emery board and sandpaper were on the mound with Joe Niekro, the Astros’ all-time leader in wins (144), a time or 20 at the Astrodome.
But Niekro was with the Twins in 1987 when an emery board flew out of his pocket and sandpaper was found, which led to his ejection and a 10-game suspension.
Hilariously, he claimed that as a knuckleball pitcher, he needed the emery board to keep his nails short and the sandpaper to protect the emery board from getting wet.
Is pine tar in play with the Astros?
The numbers are eye-popping for the Astros, who before Tuesday night’s 4-0 loss had beaten the Yankees seven straight times in Houston.
Before Ken Giles blew up in a disastrous ninth-inning relief appearance, Justin Verlander added to the Astros’ pitching dominance with a stellar performance, allowing just three hits in eight innings and matching a career high with 14 strikeouts.
It was the 10th time this season (in 31 games) that a Houston starting pitcher has struck out at least 10 batters. Astros starters managed that feat only nine times all last season.
Newcomer Gerrit Cole, who has seen his spin rate increase since coming to the Astros in an offseason trade, set an American League record for strikeouts through April with 61, fanning at least 11 hitters in four of his six starts.
Houston set a team record for run-differential through 30 games, and entered Monday first in runs allowed (82), with its starters leading the league ERA and its bullpen second.
That is the fewest runs allowed in the first 30 games of a season since the ’81 A’s gave up only 68.
Oh yeah, when those A’s played the Yankees in the ALCS that year, George Steinbrenner alerted MLB officials that the A’s pitchers were using illegal spitballs taught them by his former manager, Billy Martin.
If they ain’t accusing you of cheating, you ain’t winning.
As Scott said in 1986, “The only time anybody gripes is when you’re getting them out.”