Pine Tar Redux - Not For Nothin', Lets Take a Look Back...

It's quite clear in our big-screen, high-def world that Yankee pitcher Michael Pineda was using pine tar on his pitching hand last Thursday night versus the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium.  Before the reaction on social media could crash the internet or you could hire Matt Taibbe to do an investigative piece, Boston manager John Farrell was silent on the issue immediately after the game while slugger David Ortiz had this to say, "everybody uses pine tar, it's no big deal."  If your first instinct is to call Oliver Stone so somebody can get to the bottom of this cover-up, let me ask you a question. Pineda was obviously breaking the rules, but was he really cheating? I'll answer that somewhat circuitously by going to the way-back machine and taking a look at the only pine tar controversy that matters, the 1983 George Brett incident.  Work with me here...

You can't mention "the pine tar game" without first thinking about the iconic image of KC's hall-of-fame third baseman George Brett's full-blown nutty, charging out of the visitor's dugout at Yankee stadium like the Incredible Hulk, hellbent on tearing the umpires limb from limb once he learned he had been called out for illegal use of pine-tar, thus negating his go-ahead, 9th inning, two-run homer and ending the game on the out call. What people often forget is that the Royals got the last laugh after their appeal was upheld by AL Commissioner Lee MacPhail - the call was overturned, the home run put back on the board and the suspended game won by the Royals a few weeks later in front of about 1200 fans in New York. The reason the ruling was reversed is because the rule itself had nothing to do with the hitter gaining an advantage. The only reason for not allowing pine tar past the first 18 inches of the bat is because the pine tar mucks up the baseballs. The logic was that if there was no advantage, then there should be no penalty...except to get rid of the bat.

So what does that have to do with Pineda?  He was presumed to be using pine tar to help him grip the ball on a cold April night in the Bronx. GRIP! The same reason hitters use the sticky substance on their bats, which is legal. While scuffing, cutting or gooing up the ball could make a pitch dance in an unnatural way, just having a good grip doesn't give Ace out there any superpowers. As a result, while it might be a technical violation of the rules, it's not viewed by the players and coaches as cheating. If the managers aren't going to say anything, then the umpires certainly aren't inclined to do anything about it. The larger principal at work here is that very often in baseball, it's the spirit of the rule that is more important than the letter of it. Personally, I can't stand it when coaches beg umpires to make a ruling based on a technicality that has nothing to do with the baseball action...let the players determine the outcome.

Its fair to say that Joe Torre and the rules committee are not afraid to experiment with changes as they've done with instant replay and collisions at the plate so this is something else they might consider. Maybe they'll simply sanction a sticky substance to use for grip that's not particularly messy. Hey, I've got it - they should let major league pitchers use that stuff bank tellers use, then after the game, they can use it to count their money too! Pitching in the bigs is good work if you can get it!
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Okay, before you go, if you are indeed an Oliver Stone fan, I've dug up some interesting facts about the 1983 pine tar game we could use in the movie:

• The same tactic was used successfully against the Yankees and Thurman Munson a few years earlier so this is a trick manager Billy Martin obviously had been hiding up his sleeve for a while. Brett was the mark but again, it backfired on Martin in the end.
• That said, the fiery skipper was not going to go down without his own fight so when the suspended game started up a few weeks later, Martin obstinately appealed that Brett missed first and second base.  The original umpires were not working the restart so Brett was ruled safe per the original crew's signed affidavits.  Who knew what, and when did they know it?
• Amid the chaos caused by Brett's conniption, someone in the Royal's camp wrestled the bat away from the umpires and relayed it to their clubhouse ostensibly to hide the evidence. The culprit was later reprimanded by the league and identified as none other than, ironically, the dark lord of foreign substance on the mound, Gaylord Perry who finished his career with KC - go figure.
• And one more for you trivia buffs. Because the teams were limited to their rosters from the date of the original game, the Yankees were shorthanded so they fielded a team for the final third of an inning that had pitcher Ron Guidry in center field and Don Mattingly at second base.  This is the last time a lefty played second base in the majors. Mattingly also played third base for a few games in '86.

If you've enjoyed "Pine Tar Redux," there's a lot more where that came from in my book, "The Rules Abide: The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball Rules (With History, Humor and a Few Big Words)"
On sale HERE for only $2.99 for eBook and $11.99 paperback