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Baseball’s rule against the use of foreign substances has been buried for decades under a gentlemen’s pact between directors, who almost uniformly refused to ask governors to check opposing bowlers because they knew their bowlers wouldn’t be screened.
But with Major League Baseball set to order governors to enforce foreign substance rules starting Monday, at least three teams intend to scrap that old agreement, according to sources. If the managers of those teams receive information that appears suspicious — a video of an opposing bowler possibly using foreign materials, or data about an unusually high turnover — they will ask the referees to check the opposing bowlers.
If only a few teams start requiring foreign material checks, the gentlemen’s agreement may become outdated, with most or all teams wanting to keep an eye on opposing shooters.
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A high-ranking talent evaluator explained his organization’s point of view the other day, while requesting anonymity.
“We told our shooters that if they used, they should stop,” the evaluator said. “We look to equal opportunity. The whole sport is looking to equal opportunity. We have an expectation that our guys will respect the rule. If we get an indication that someone is making an offer to the other team that might do something to gain a competitive advantage, yes, we want our manager to challenge it.”
Staff from two other organizations echoed the same sentiment – that as long as there was an athletic dedication to level playing and eliminating foreign material, they expected opponents to stick to the rule as well.
The use of foreign materials was widespread and primarily in the open for many shooters across the baseball arena. When bowlers dominated the shiny spot on the forearm of their gloved hands, everyone in the sport — referees, managers, coaches, and players — knew they were probably reaching for a mixture of sunscreen, pine tar and pine, which is against longstanding rules.
But nearly every manager looked the other way rather than asking the umpires to check, mostly to protect their shooters. There were rare exceptions. At a game between the Yankees and the Red Sox in 2014, on a cold early season night at Fenway Park, Michael Pineda struggled to control and lead baseball in the first half — and complained about it to his teammates after the first half. . When he returned to the hill at the bottom of a second, he had a lump of pine tar on his neck that had been placed by his fellow veteran—a lump of foreign substance so large that it instantly attracted a national television cameras audience.
With the hype building on the field, Red Sox manager John Farrell emerged from a Boston bunker to ask for Pineda to be examined – but as Farrell explained years later, he had no desire to do so, but felt he had no choice given how to do it. Pineda’s use was scandalous. Joe Girardi, the Yankees’ manager at the time, exonerated Farrell, telling reporters he understood Farrell was in a difficult situation. The referees sent off Pineda, who was then suspended for 10 matches.
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