Mariners left-hander Héctor Santiago was ejected from today’s game against the White Sox by home plate umpire Phil Cuzzi after a between-innings foreign substance inspection, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post was among those to relay. Santiago’s glove was confiscated. (Ben Verlander of Fox Sports provides video of the incident).
Seattle manager Scott Servais confirmed (via Jesse Rogers of ESPN) that Santiago was deemed to have used a foreign substance but claimed Cuzzi’s judgment was incorrect. “He had rosin all over himself. Phil thought he had sticky stuff on his glove,” Servais said. “There is no sticky stuff in the glove.” Rosin is permitted under the league’s substance policy.
If Santiago’s ejection is ultimately deemed to be due to a foreign substance and not rosin, as Servais suggested, the left-hander wiill be subject to a ten-day suspension under the terms of Major League Baseball’s new enforcement of the prohibition against ball doctoring. Santiago would become the first player to be disciplined since MLB’s crackdown went into effect on Monday. The Mariners would not be permitted to replace him on the active or 40-man rosters during the course of any suspension.
The 33-year-old Santiago first appeared in the majors in 2011 and has thrown just under 1000 innings at the big league level. Signed to a minor league deal last month, he’s made nine appearances since being selected to the roster. Santiago entered play today with a 2.45 ERA/2.89 SIERA across 14 2/3 innings.
Oops.
Servais said he doesn’t think there will be a suspension. We’ll see.
Are we supposed to act as though sweat hasn’t been mixing with the rosin all these years and getting on the glove and the ball?’
I wish MLB or the teams would address that..
If the umps are wrong, will they be punished? Will the Mariners receive some sort of compensation?
He was coming out of the game anyway.
Even so, the right thing needs to be done. If the umps get off free and they’re wrong, that’s bad precedent to set
Not really. The umpire obviously felt something sticky. Punishing an umpire for being wrong would remove their enforcement power. What umpire would even try to make that call knowing there’s personal penalties for being mistaken. ?
Not one.
And if it was merely rosin, why the heck is it smeared on the inside of his glove on his non-throwing hand. Face it. Dude got caught and deserves whatever punishment he gets..
Jump to conclusions much
Just using good old fashioned deductive reasoning. I’ll happily admit if I’m wrong and Hector Santiago was purely a victim of circumstance…. just don’t think that’s the case. It’s my opinion, not a court of law, there’s some different parameters applied.
To have a supply
The first casualty
And so it begins
What the Hec(tor)!
Due to an issue with the inside heel of his mitt, which if you have worn a mitt before you know that area is where swear accumulates. I hope they do tests & see what substance is found or if it’s just sweat. This one seems a tad skeptical, but If they find something else, I’m glad they did their job & enforced the rules. And I’m a Mariners fan….I dunno why, but I am.
Playing fair is all I ask for, and if ANYONE on ANY team feels overwhelmed to cheat, be it in any fashion: accountability is what is required for the preservation of the game.
I too, M’s fan but growing up here I fell in love with the game first, team second.
What’s baffling is that they use a worn-out trash bag for the seized glove. Wouldn’t they want to use an airtight ziploc or something to ensure that glove retains its moisture for easier analysis for testers?
You assume MLB actually cares about any of this. They only started this crackdown to appease the fans. Notice the first casualty is a guy who might have been optioned next week. If they suspend an actual rotation piece on a contending team, I’ll be shocked.
Most fans could care less about this stuff.
Speak for yourself.
Every fan with a fantasy team cares deeply about this! You seen some of my guys!? Oof!
MLB played for Fantasy leagues only. Pure fans are just a way to make Billionares more money.
Which fans are being appeased, exactly? Not many I’ve heard about. MLB did this because batting averages had dropped to historic lows, but that’s as much due to analytics as it is about sticky substances.
“Nobody cares”
-Sonny LoSpeccio
tOo*
IndianRye – You are right on. Everything Manfred is doing is for the purpose of shortening the game to attract low attention span viewers, aka millennials, aka the instant gratification generation. These new “fans” don’t understand nor do they have the patience for the nuances of gamesmanship like stepping off the mound or out of the box to throw the opponent off, etc. The worst change ever is the man starting on second in extra innings. That’s little league stuff and one step away from a “pitch to your own team” policy in extra innings. It’s a shame what he is doing to the game.
But you can’t live in the past either. Nobody likes change. Plenty of children like the new rules, which is what he is doing. Ushering in a new fan base. Remember this is a game and for entertainment purposes only. The die hard baseball fans love the stepping off and whatnot, but it’s a minority. It’s still baseball, just with some added elements we aren’t accustomed too.
And dividing the group they have to negotiate the next CBA with…add in some public resentment in how the mighty MLB is saying its all just these bad bad pitchers
Frodo – I understand the concept of “adapt or die”. But I disagree that it’s living in the past to want to keep the game pure. Implementing rules that change the game for the sole purpose of making games shorter waters it down. I equate it to reading a good book, then seeing the movie. The movie is always a watered down distorted version of the story in order to fit what they can in a 2 hour window.
I agree with the policies against cheating because that supports the integrity of baseball. I also have liked the replay format and wouldn’t mind seeing it expanded somehow to balls and strikes to avoid going to robo-umps. Maybe it could look something like tennis and the batter/catcher would have the ability to challenge the ump’s call and only then would a robo-ump be used. Perhaps only on pitches that would end the at-bat in either a strike out or a walk.
I truly appreciate the thinking there.
Baseball has always been a “special” game, the “American pastime” as it was once called.
Really special.
Just like in Field of Dreams. The scoffers may say what they like. They’re not part of any of it anyway.
Dodo you brought in politics first but it was 11 hours before your amazing retort. You probably forgot. Go along with the lemmings and think the corpse is running the show.
The same reason law enforcement collects any DNA evidence in paper bags. Moisture trapped in an air tight bag will lead to moisture and contamination
You’ve been watching too much CSI dude
They put the glove in a plastic not paper.
@cam
No I’m a certified crime scene technician. Thanks for your 2 cents though.
Well, I’m former president Jimmy Carter, and I think you’re full of it. Checkmate.
That’s pretty cool. I’d love to pick your brain. You couldn’t catch me dead watching corny CSI though. There’s too many real documentaries to be watching that inaccurate crap
@Scott Burgos
It’s just funny to watch them bag that glove and do it so poorly. If that ever went into a courtroom it’s useless. And CSI is a joke, god I hate that show. If there was a way to drop an email to you on here I would sir, always enjoy a good discussion
Amen.
Just wait til the thread is abandoned, @ShieldF123.
Myself & a couple other posters have been posting on the same thread since Thanksgiving. Straight up. Over 500 posts. For real. We talk about baseball a lot.
But other stuff too.
I’ll take a hat tip for providing a solution.
Here’s a hat tip from Fred Park.
Merci.
I can vouch for this. We never put anything with moisture in a sealed plastic bag. It just grows mold, and quickly.
“Moisture will lead to moisture” is probably one of the best takes I’ve ever seen on here. Strong science
It’s a typo dude.
*mold
What’s also weird, @BleacherCreature is the whole “confiscated glove” thing. Ya know?
Do you think Manfred has an evidence room?
I’m sure it’s the most secure evidence room in history.
Using the same room the NFL uses for under inflated footballs
Ah the hall of fame room
Man, you guys crack me up.
@Ducky I don’t pretend to know what MLB is doing in this instance. I just feel bad for Santiago for losing his favorite glove and am also glad that Max Scherzer didn’t drop his pants for a national audience.
Right?
It’s mayhem. Which is the only redeeming quality of the whole deal, @YBC. The timing is…odd.
I think they should have full on shakedowns between innings. No more of this soft on foreign substance stuff. Go straight fascist with it, uh? That outta fix it.
Rosin on his non-throwing hand, got so sweaty it rubbed off on his glove? Yeah, not buying it. You’d have to really want to believe in his innocence.
Pooperpot is it beyond your mini mind to think he put the rosin on his arm and the sweat and rosin gathered at the spot the glove and hand met? I watched a game after that forgot which one surfing through a couple. They had a close up of a pitcher putting rosin on his glove hand. I have never heard it is illegal before.
When Inspector Manfred gets done with his science experiment and it is sweat and rosin both legal what does he do? Suspend him 10 games for doing what many pitchers do? If this happened to Ohtani you would be livid. Since it is Seattle you need to get your puny jabs in when you can. I can’t believe you didn’t bring Dipoto into this. He seems to be the reason your team will be bottom feeders for awhile.
Pitchers can blame him, not the league for the inspections.
All pitchers have done it at one time.
Baseball is like 50% cheating anyway.
Batters have pine tar on their barrels that leave stains on their backs, from the follow through.
Baseball is like a college relationship, cheating is assumed.
just realized something really really funny : if the vote for AL Mgr of the year were held today, an honest voter would have to choose between Cora, Hinch, and Dusty Baker; but it’s a long season; maybe LaRussa gets it
hahahahahaha
LaRussa
lol sure
Having pine tar past the logo on a bat won’t get a batter busted any longer.. a-la George brett from years ago. Rules change.
Anyone else remember when Bucholz used to admit to having sunscreen on his left arm? U could see it, mixed with pine tar. Forget the manager who had him checked, but he was on the mound the year he went like 11-1.. No suspension for it.
Later tests will reveal Santiago had an “adult” lube in his glove, to make the ball slide better into his catcher’s mitt.
Two balls and one strike.
CHEATER!
Do you feel better about yourself now?
You probably cheated on all your tests in high school, stop gatekeeping dumb stuff
you sound more like a rulebreaker than OP for saying that.
You gunna tattle on us, darkside?
Agreed. I knew there was a reason I always disliked Santiago, and now I know!
Knowing that for decades, many pitchers used a “ foreign substance “ for proper grip that could and probably ( operative word) changed the spin / location of the pitch… why didn’t/don’t we call that cheating? Why could Mantle, Mays etc… use creams , injections ( which was commonplace) to gain a physical advantage and Bonds, McGwire etc… be punished? It is a fair question
Steroids are bad and easily accessible by young adults. Not everyone has the ability to throw 80+ mph and would benefit aby with sticky stuff would be my guess. They have to start enforcement somewhere and I’m all for an even playing field.
Of course the Yankees have never done anything selfish or stupid or sinful in their entire history.
This comment doesn’t make sense. Are you trying to say, “because a team you like did something bad, you don’t have the right to ask for a level playing field”? I can’t quite follow your logic.
My comment has nothing to do with my favorite players or teams. I’ve also never defended the Yankees during the hearsays alleging that they were using electronic means to steal signs. This happened during the Red Sox’ Apple Watch investigation. If you don’t understand my previous comment, please read it again.
Mantle symbolized AMERICA!
I am very much afraid that he did, indeed.
Yes he was doing Drugs and using steroids, had extra marital affairs and got the clap… grantland.com/features/the-last-boy/
Pitchers have been putting foreign substances on the balls since they started pitching.. and players have been using performance enhancing drugs documented from back in the 1880’s when Cocaine was in Coca Cola..
Of course it was some scrub on an inconsequential team. Welcome to MLB, where the rule apply, but not to the big people.
In some ways he’s exactly who you might think was cheating: a guy who was having trouble sticking in the majors lately, a veteran who was awful in 2019, didn’t appear in 2020 and started this year in the minors. Maybe now we know why he made it back up.
Cole and Bauer haven’t been nearly as effective recently as compared to early in the season. But they really have no reason to cheat or not to cheat. Both already got their guarenteed money and unless something in the CBA changes that, then I can see that point.
Yeah you look at spin rate and you see a little difference. More mental for them i think though. An edge was taken away and I think it had gotten to them
and if the 1st guy caught was on a good team than people would claim it was a hit on that team or something. cant win with rule enforcement.
Absolutely. It would be kind of hard for the league to have 0 suspensions. Nail 2-3 random replacement level guys, show that you mean business and then move on.
The whole thing is a joke.
Who are you calling inconsequential? We are 4 games over 500. We could finish over 500 with a peak at the playoffs. Just need to get healthy.
OK just joking.
Mariners fans are great. Players too. Throwing baseballs and candy to all the kids throughout the game. Cheering on each other from the pen.
Alex Sanchez, a.speedy singles hitting OF was the first player busted for steroids. That didn’t stop them from getting to the big name players.
Obviously this guy doesn’t cheat well.
Cheats about as well as he pitches I guess…..
Man, MLB needs better evidence collection bags. Even I keep a better collection of small grocery bags to dump my leftovers in.
The fact that they used plastic at all is ridiculous
Ok. Please school me on why paper bags would be the better option taking into consideration that they’re not examining gloves for DNA, fingerprints, bodily secretion fluids, nor hair samples,
Simplest version, anything placed in plastic will trap moisture and that’s bad. Moisture leads to breakdown of substances, mold, etc.
Hence why you vacuum seal certain things in your freezer. Plastic is air tight, but you trap air and moisture in the bag as well.
As far as MLB is concerned, if you bag that glove in plastic and ship it out for testing, several days of trapped air and moisture would degrade and complicate your test results
Thanks for the explanation! The MLBPA should be all over this then if improper storage methods were used. I do wonder if these particular paid suspensions effect a player’s service time. Granted Santiago’s MLB service time doesn’t effect him as he’s a vet, there could be ramifications for a player with less than three years of service. If MLB isn’t using proper collection protocols, then filing a player grievance and having a ruling overturned should be a cakewalk. Anyway, it’s laughable how careless those umps handled storing the glove.
Absolutely. If they treated a urine or blood sample like that for drug testing the results would get thrown out in seconds. I think we all remember the Ryan Braun fiasco because of collection errors.
It’s almost like umpires have no training on how to handle this stuff. And THEY DONT CARE!!!!
Someone was gonna do it. It’s about time. Get it over with, let’s get the news repeats on it going for the next 48 hours. Actually pretty smart of him to be the first, now people might actually know who he is lol
I’ve known who he is!
Uhh..he, uhh…he was that baseball guy who got ejected from a game for possibly cheating this year!
He plays for the Seattle…Aquatics? Marinara’s? Something like that.
yeah, who is this 1x all star scrub?
So my question is how do they treat it if its pine tar? I mean catchers bat and in the NL games the pitchers do too.They get pine tar on them. So do they have mandatory hand washing between innings?
Most batters use batting gloves
Winnie the Pooh with his hand in the honey jar.
Most of these guys have done it, but the big names won’t get busted.
@cryptonerd – whilst the likeness wasn’t immediately apparent – I see what you mean – especially the ears….
Not exactly busted but G Cole, 4IP 6ER is an interesting line….
Oh buttons – self edit – 5IP & only 5 of those 6 runs earned….
Bauer and Cole haven’t been nearly as effective recently compared to the begining of the season. Plus they don’t have much of an incentive to cheat now with their big guarenteed contracts.
If Santiago indeed cheated, and since his glove was confiscated, I say the next time he pitches he shouldn’t be allowed to wear a glove.
I think hitters should only be allowed one bat per AB. If yours breaks or lands in the stands, tough luck.
And then they meet on the diamond. No glove vs broken bat. What an epic battle !?!
Yeah like hockey when defensemen lose their stick and have to tap dance their way in front of the puck absent a weapon. That would be awesome. Swinging with an imaginary light sabre.
I mean really, all this stupid showy dumb crud way they do this is only really going to uncover lots of Santiago-types, who cares.
go watch horse racing or wrestling if you dont care about the integrity of the sport you watch.
Scripted reality television. Bust someone of notoriety and I’ll believe mlb is enforcing the rule.
The people with notoriety have stopped using the substances. They got their big bucks and don’t want to lose any of them.
It’s a paid suspension
I’ve been watching the game, this is really odd. I really dont think he had anything of real worth on His gloves. His pitches certainly look normal from
What I’ve seen. He may be guilty, but it feels like a reach.
Steve Stone suggests only testing freakishly abnormal pitches, which can be easily tracked by measuring spin rate. Boom. There’s your solution.
this is so great meanwhile little league rules just shafted me out of 4 innings of enjoyment yesterday, and are sticking ghost runners on second right now
solid to lose a game to ghost runner and the p****fication of everything continues apace
Trying to cheat against the team that literally knows you best! Great idea Hector.
Manfred finally gets to suspend someone so he’s gotta be happy about that
I love all the people out here yelling “cheater” when it’s probably just rosin and sweat. People just love to point the finger at everyone other than themselves.
Hector didn’t look too upset. He almost had a little smirk on his face.
He’s got a smirk cuz he’s a happy go lucky dude. Was spearing fish in Puerto Rico a few months ago
You think MLB will suspend him for having rosin on his glove? If you have watched baseball games for a couple weeks or more you have seen pitchers use it on both hands. They bounce it between both hands like a hackey sack. This will be the test to see how much teeth this change has. Suspend a reliever to show they mean business.
Kikuchi said the balls in Japan are wrapped and a tacky substance is on the ball. How hard would it be for MLB to do the same? Last how many balls have we seen fly over the batters head or been wild? Batters are good with a little substance on the ball for control but not so much it looks like Gaylord Perry from what I have heard.
Correct. The balls in Korea and Japan are pre made so they have a tack to them. Current MLB balls are terribly made. They could use a college baseball and it would be better. If the league made a different ball, there would be no issue.
Hope Abreu gets better soon. Was that pitch because the ball slipped? Never know for sure but looked painful. He is a player I wanted Seattle top sign. Hate to see that happen.
Ball was delivered by Chargois not Santiago. But point taken. Sucked to see Abreu go down but pretty clear it was unintentional. M’s are a pretty classy bunch. Hope you beat up on the Trash stros. And maybe send the Sox Haniger and relief help. Is Middleton available?
Cocaine?
“So I asked a Peruvian Indian chief… I said, ‘Chief, what’s cocaine?’ He thought for a minute then said, ‘Cocaine: it’s our little gift to the white man for what you did to us. You take out land, we give you monkey for your back.”
— Robin Williams
Interesting if you read Servais’s quotes closely, assuming they are quoted correctly. He said, “Phil though he had sticky stuff ON his glove. There is no sticky stuff IN the glove.” Those aren’t the same thing, Scott.
I was watching the game and saw the post game interview with him. I believe him when he said it was sweat and rosin and his reaction when they caught him was obvious that he was not cheating.
We saw him warming up in the bullpen. Even have video of him going through his routine. Nothing on uniform, glove. He then went into the dugout for like 10 seconds and then straight to the Mound. Unless he had a stockpile somewhere in the dugout, don’t see how he could have gotten into the sticky stuff.
So what happens if they run the test and find that it wasn’t a band substance? What is the remedy? I the team that lost the player loses, should they be able to go back to the time he was thrown out for no reason? I know they can’t but this could cause playoff implications for other teams down the road.
I do find it funny that they pick the worst organization in baseball to “find” something.
One of the worst organizations and low man on the totem just trying to survive in the game. Hector was sweeping the bullpen and fetching drinks for his teammates Friday before getting the emergency spot start today. He really did send put a cover letter and resume to all 30 clubs and didn’t get a call till April 30.
I don’t know. That would imply logic being used, which hasn’t happened so far.
Some good comments today.
I signed up for commenting months ago, but lost heart until now.
I watched the MLB Disqus comments deteriorate and be ended.
I saw the same thing on Shannon Drayer’s blog..
I hope that doesn’t happen here.
I think this :”sticky stuff:” matter is important.. Resin has always been allowed on a pitching hand.
Players have always perspired.
But today, I believe, MLB watched for just the right situation in which to start a complete airing of the entire matter.
Here was a moment when a pitcher was already about to come out, so pouncing on it here did not hurt or affect the particular game or the team..
If there is no suspension, as I think we will see, the player is not harmed either.
But a complete investigation of foreign substances on the ball has finally begun.
This should get interesting.
I think his name has been harmed even if he’s found not guilty being the first guy ejected. It’s going to follow him in a GM’s office during his next contract interview/negotiation after this season. *I’m already on my second bowl of popcorn.*
Nobody is going to ultimately care
Which totally sucks. Hector is just a journeyman trying to make it, not trying to get some extraordinary advantage. One of the nice guys in the game. Like Steve Stones idea— track each guys spin rate —– any highly unusual deviation becomes grounds for suspension or inspection.
The twins Happ was smeared with Sunscreen today.. which is legal to wear.. but he was also constantly wiping his arm and forehead under his hat with his pitching hand .. In my opinion he was loading the ball..
How do you know he was smeared with sunscreen? If he was — day game. Your opinion on loading the ball means nothing because they replace balls constantly are you an Indians fan?
I wish I had smeared sunscreen. Serious burn after 7 hours at Ye Olde Comiskey bleachers
1: they were talking about him using it in the twins announcer booth on Video
2; i watched the game
3; i tend to see little nuisances
4: he was making motions on his non pitching arm and his forehead with his pitching hand
5: have you wondered what happened to the Twins pitching staff?.. they have lost peak velocity
6. Maeda was digging the ball into his glove in a funny manner before his Injury.. like he was scuffing it
7: Did the magic wear off or did the Twins institute the no foreign substance memo early?
8: i have followed the Twins since the 1960’s..
What is MLB doing? This whole in season substance BS is just that – BS. Give pitchers an option of rosin or some other “league-approved” substance for some tack and get on with it. Manfred is a freaking drama queen and needs to be replaced. What’s his freaking deal?
So what’s gonna happen if they only find sweat, water and rosin? Do you still get suspended for 10days? Do you get compensated for getting ejected? Does the ump gets something? What’s the rule?
We were at the game, seated right behind the bullpen. Saw Hector go through his pregame routine and warmup, chatted him up. He went straight to the dugout and mound. There’s no way he had any illegal substance. The guy is a solid dude, just trying to make it. He actually sent a cover letter and resume to all 30 clubs and was spearfishing in Puerto Rico when the M’s called him on April 30. Let him be already.
Phil Cuzzi is the worst. Cant even recognize rosin
Or fair balls.
Or strikes
They bagged up that evidence like Barney Fife on a murder investigation
As guys start getting caught, I can’t wait to hear the excuses when certain substances are found.
“I topped off my car with motor oil and transmission fluid, and it spilled all over my hands. I’m not good at fixing cars, so it happens.”
“The lubricant mixed with other stuff was because me and the wife had a quickie before the game. I know I should have cleaned up afterward, but I was getting late for the game. Don’t make anything about me having been the first guy to the park today. I like arriving even earlier than I did…even though I never have.”
“I changed my child’s diaper before the game and got baby oil, anti-rash and all other stuff all over my hand.”
“I had to give my dog suppositories for an ailment, and didn’t do a thorough job with cleaning off the lube that was used.”
“I bought some bargain brand potato chips on my way to the game, and thought that a paper towel was enough to wipe off the grease.”
“I was making homemade sandpaper and accidentally got adhesive and particles all over my hands, and i guess I didn’t clean it off correctly.”
“I stopped by Bob’s Burgers and got one of those ‘special of the day’ burgers, the ‘Torpedo Jones’. I couldn’t eat it until right after my warm-up. I was starving. I don’t know what type of oil and condiments he uses on those things. And don’t tell me that Bob’s Burgers is a fictional place located in NY because I actually found one that has a ‘Torpedo Jones Special’. I just can’t remember where it is and for some reason it doesn’t appear in a Google search or on any navigation map system.”
Just a reminder that it’s possible he gets more games from this than any of my Astros got for cheating.
I feel like they’re going to hold up this suspension regardless. A cover-up if the tests are clean. Imagine how bad it will look if the first person they ejected for this is found to not have used anything.
Almost as bad as when they claimed no one cheated, then one player called out another player, naming the product they use, then proceeded to produce the same improved results?
It’s hard to save face on a topic when you lost the face a long time ago
Of course it’s Cuzzi shoving his nose in and being the guy to do this incorrectly. I’m still pissed about the ridiculous 2009 ALDS foul call
This is a joke.
Like I said when they announced they would be doing this you can’t leave something so important in the hands of umpires. They are barely employed and very possibly going to get replaced in the future. You couldn’t find someone with less care or skin in the game.
And there of course are racial implications here. Just like the domestic violence policy. Just like the cheating scandal MLB is weirdly throwing Latinos under the bus. Baseball wants to blame Latinos for everything wrong with the game. And it’s lame as can be they are the ones making the game great.
Oh please. Clayton Kershaw was checked multiple times last night during his 13 K game, including at the very end of his final inning. They had his entire glove and cap in hand, doing complete rotations of the rims. the last one is even caught on an mlb.com video
Phil Cuzzi is horrible at his job if he can’t ID rosin vs something worse. But that doesn’t mean MLB is institutionally racist against Latinos. Cmon
I am saying there is a pattern of behavior here. Just like the police and the drug laws it ends up being selective enforcement.
At the end of the day it shouldn’t be put on the umpires to handle this major issue in baseball. At least not without a bump in pay or some incentive to actually care.
MLB is weirdly throwing Latinos under the bus.
===================================================
ROTFLMAO!
I know they checked Cole and Whitlock yesterday in the NYY/RS game. When did they become Latino?
Did they kick them out of the game????
Dude let it play out. I said this would happen before it happened. Let it play out……
You do realize they are checking all pitchers..every game. Starter at least once and reliever during inning enter or at end of inning. They don’t just pick some and not others. Not just latinos..all pitchers.
Confiscating a player’s glove seems to me just a lousy thing to do, even a pitcher.
Anyway, what are they going to do with the glove?
Have the surface analyzed at some great expense?
All this posturing is enough to make a grown man cry.
The commenters who scorn Manfred are on the right track here.
I assume that they give the glove back. The team can go to Modell’s and buy a new one if necessary.
But even then, breaking in a new glove is no fun.
A player is always working on his gloves, getting them just right .
A lot of fielding errors are because of a stiff new glove.
You think they only have 1 gove for whole season?
Following this, Joe Kelly has been suspended 8 games
Coming from a Halos fan, if Hector has been using any substance it’s ot like it has dramatically improved his command or anything over the last few years. Yeah he has decent stats this season but it’s a small sample size and now he is in the pen and not a starter. He like a lot of our Halo starters do well for a few innings then fade out at the end…I hope it works out for him cause he didn’t seem like a cheater to me. But that is why there will now be an investigation. Give the guy a chance before you throw the book and judge him before any results come back…