Michael Pineda opened up a whole can of worms, and got a 10-game suspension, for using pine tar on the baseball. He cheated, plain and simple. Rule 8.02 of the baseball rulebook states “Pitchers are allowed neither to have a foreign substance on their person nor to apply said foreign substance to the ball.”
But should pine tar be included in this rule? All I’ve been hearing the past few days on sports talk radio is that “everybody does it” or “hitters don’t care.”
If no one cares and everybody does it, then what’s the issue? I’m sure the fact that Pineda looked like he got slapped in the neck with a bottle of maple syrup had a lot to do with it. And at this point Pineda should change his last name to Piñata with the way he’s being bludgeoned on the airwaves.
Plus, pine tar isn’t “doctoring” a baseball. It does not affect the flight of a baseball one bit, not like spit, Crisco or Vagisil (my ode to Eddie Harris). All it does is help you get a better grip on the baseball on a cold night. Someone go ask Delino DeShields Jr. what he thinks about pitchers having a better grip on the ball; perhaps he wouldn’t have had to spend the weekend in the hospital after being hit in the face with a fastball and breaking his cheekbone if that pitcher had some pine tar.
You know what baseball gives pitchers? A rosin bag. You know what rosin is? Powder. So we have a cold night, and they will allow you to blow on your hands, but that slight amount of moisture dissipates within seconds. Add onto that a ball with no seams to grip – it’s like a cue ball now. I’m surprised more people aren’t getting hurt.
If there’s one thing the last 10 years of baseball have showed us, it’s that anything that can be used to gain an advantage will be used. And since it’s not an issue for hitters to use pine tar, and it is for pitchers, it appears that MLB is more concerned about the fans (thank you MLB) than the players.
So, let’s just take it away, from everyone. That’s the only way that it ever not going to be an issue, by getting rid of it. And as far as hitters go, I’ve already got that figured out. And all you have to do is look as far as your favorite NFL wide receiver, tight end, running back, defensive player, take your pick. The gloves already exist. Technology has exceeded the existing rules of baseball, so let’s take advantage of it. We’ve already jumped into the instant replay pool, why can’t we do this as well?
And as far as the pitchers go, just give us our seams back. Give them something to grip and they won’t have to go and try to find other methods to grip a pitch and have a clue where it is going. You can’t change the climate, but you can improve the ways we have to deal with it.
