That ain’t dirt. Chad Jennings has more.
Our old pal Peter Abraham tweeted:
Farrelll, Pedroia + Ortiz dismissed the pine tar thing. Either didn’t notice or didn’t care. “Everybody in the league does it,” Ortiz said.
Ortiz: “I can’t tell you how balls I foul off that have pine tar. It’s part of the game. You just take it.”
Farrell: “I can’t say it’s uncommon that guys will look to create a little bit of a grip. Typically you’re not trying to be as blatant.”
Ortiz gets some credit for honesty, I think.
There is definitely a rule against having pine tar on your hands. The two relevant ones:
I think (b) is the important one. (a)(4) can't be taken to forbid foreign substance on your hands that might get on the ball, or else rosin would be illegal!
But it's also obvious that nobody wants to treat this as an actual rule. It's interesting how players, coaches, and fans have such variable ethics of rules.
nice headline, Alex.
1) yeah, Ortiz, and Buchholtz get some credit for not being hypocrites about cheating. They spared us that.
putting the headlines about the tar aside for a second, let's all just take a moment to realize the Yankees may very well have a 25 year old BEAST in the middle of their rotation
Isn't the same the same crap Buchholz puts in his hair? What's the fuss all
about?
[4] Well, because Buchholz needs that stuff for his hair. How else would he look so awesome? Without a beard, I mean.
[5] A throat and neck tattoo of course.
2) It was either that or STICKY FINGERS.
3) I'm not sold on Pineda yet. Maybe I'm just worried about injury. But yeah, he's looked good so far.
[3] That's really the only thing worth getting excited about here, isn't it?
7) both are clever, but I prefer the one you went with because it reminds me of Foghorn Leghorn, and that's my guy.
Sticky Fingers reminds me of the Warhol album cover which was never one of my favorites. I'm more of a Roxy Music "Country Life" kind of guy. Now, that's an album cover.
4) I was thinking the same thing. I was watching the game on MLB TV and Bob Costas mentioned Bucholtz hair thing and how there was a controversy as he had some stuff on his arm too. I never noticed his hair was his source of foreign substance and was wondering in the past why he always looked so greasy, even in the 1st inning. Then I could see after Costas mentioned it that on every pitch he would wipe his hair first. Pineda has to grow his hair out so it isn't as obvious.
3) Pineda looked sharp and I would have to say that we already won that trade, unless Montero magically sheds 40 lbs and starts mashing at Safeco. Even if Pineda gives us nothing else going forward, he nearly blanked the Sox.
Meh, if everyone's doing it and the hitters aren't upset by it, I'm not going to get worried about it.
Felger and Mazz (which is the best local radio sportstalk show) are offering a plausible explanation for why Farrell et al. seemed pissed off about how 'blatant' Pineda's use of pine tar was. It's because the Sox knew they couldn't criticize or complain on account of Buchholz's little episode last year and Lester's "rosin" incidents, so it put the Sox in an uncomfortable position. I hadn't thought of that. Also, it's going to be embarrassing if Lester gets caught using his "rosin" tonight.