Coming to grips
Sticky stuff ban provokes managers and pitchers
NEW YORK — Royals manager Mike Matheny warned opponents that if they act like Phillies’ Joe Girardi and ask umpires to check Royals pitchers for sticky substances, it would provoke his team.
Yankees reliever Zack Britton and Max Scherzer, members of the players’ association’s executive subcommittee, called on Major League Baseball to end on-field checks by umpires and replace them with monitors who would conduct inspections in clubhouses, dugouts and bullpens.
“If I’m a young kid at the game and I’m asking my dad, ‘Well, hey, what’s going on? Why they getting checked?’ What he’s going to say? ‘Well, they think everyone’s cheating,’” Britton said Wednesday. “I mean, is that what we want the game to be about, like we’re assuming you’re cheating? I just think it’s a bad look.”
On-field exams of pitchers started Monday, a week after baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced a crackdown on unauthorized grip substances. When umpire Alfonso Marquez approached Scherzer for a third time during Tuesday’s game, as requested by Girardi, the three-time Cy Young Award winner tossed his glove and hat, unbuckled his belt and was ready to take off his pants.
“I will say this: If somebody goes hunting for something on one of our guys, I’ll guarantee we’re going to have every guy on that bench and every other eye we can get on what might be happening. But that’s not a road I want to go down,” Matheny said Wednesday at Yankee Stadium. “Let’s let the umpires do what they’re told to do.”
When Athletics reliever Sergio Romo was checked by the umpires after pitching the seventh inning on Tuesday night, the veteran righthander flung his belt onto the turf and dropped his trousers. Britton said while the goal of eliminating sticky substances was laudable, the method of enforcement was hurtful.
“I just think the optics of it are so bad for baseball,” he said during batting practice, speaking in front of the Yankees dugout. “Having players checked on the field — we’re talking about that, we’re not talking about Wander Franco’s debut, we’re not talking about how well Gerrit (Cole) threw and how well Max Scherzer threw and all this other stuff around the game. We’re talking about guys getting checked on the field, guys dropping their pants on the field, guys throwing their belts off.
“I just think the optics are just absolutely embarrassing for our game, and that’s not what I want to wake up and read about regarding our game in the morning. But there’s a better way to do it. But it takes more than just me or other players saying it,” he said. “It takes talking with MLB and sitting down and hashing something out to where we can enforce rules but not in the way that it’s being enforced.”
Cole also serves on the executive subcommittee, which along with the union staff supervises collective bargaining to replace the labor contract that expires on Dec. 1.
Britton said there have not been talks between the union and MLB in several weeks on foreign substances.
Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo criticized Girardi during an interview on Washington’s 106.7 The Fan. The Phillies manager said he became suspicious because Scherzer was touching his hair more than usual on the mound. Scherzer said he did that because he couldn’t grip the ball and needed moisture on his fingers. He also said he got tired of tasting rosin.
“It’s embarrassing for Girardi. It’s embarrassing for the Phillies. It’s embarrassing for baseball,” Rizzo said. “Yes, he was playing games. And hey that’s his right. Gamesmanship. Had nothing to do with substances. He had no probable cause to ask for it. The umps shouldn’t have allowed it . ... He’s a con artist . ... He has been doing that for years on TV.”
Britton said he understood Scherzer’s reaction.
“To check Scherzer, I thought was a little over the top. I mean, he’s pretty smart,” Britton said. “He’s not going to be doing anything. But it’s part of what the game may look like from here on out where managers would check pitchers.”
Matheny predicted more tension. “There’s people who rightfully will be very offended by being — I don’t if it’s being a called a cheater or insinuating — but there’s going to be a lot of this, I mean it’s going to be awkward,” he said. “And you could see yesterday, a guy comes off the field after giving up some runs and if you get squeezed a little bit behind the plate, I mean it’s going to turn into some stuff.”