BOSTON -- At the outset of every series, major league officials and umpires usually meet with the managers and general managers of each team to review ground rules and other special circumstances, and to open communication before some of the biggest games of the year.
In the current context, there should be a particular request made of the managers: Please do not ask the umpires to check opposing pitchers for foreign substances. And this should be reiterated. Pretty please, with sugar and sprinkles on top.
Because everybody in the room will understand that most pitchers participating in the postseason probably use sunscreen or pine tar or something that violates baseball's rule against the use of foreign substances.
If a manager asks the umpire to inspect an opposing pitcher, then the umpire will be obligated to do so, and almost certainly he would find something; by rule, the pitcher would be ejected and subject to suspension from the postseason. Absolute chaos would ensue.
Retaliation from the other team would be inevitable, in the form of inning-to-inning requests of pitcher inspection or a fastball aimed at somebody's back, backside or neck. Some of the best pitchers might be taken off the field, and the media and fan response would overrun the postseason coverage.
The online version of Major League Baseball's rule book runs 169 pages, covering everything from the infield fly rule to official scorer decisions, and yet the tempered grace of the managers is all that can prevent a competitive debacle in this moment. Because the pitchers' growing use of foreign substances has not been addressed through a rule change, MLB and the union must trust that A.J. Hinch or Dave Roberts or Craig Counsell or Alex Cora doesn't suffer a dugout meltdown and wage all-out war on opposing pitchers.
This is a month of heightened scrutiny and posted screen shots, and already there have been pictures of very prominent pitchers with hands covered with what appear to be foreign substances. The Twittersphere mostly regards this as a big gotcha, a captured image of a criminal caught in the act.
But everybody involved in the sport knows how prevalent the use of sunscreen and pine tar and other stuff has become. Many catchers have pine tar on some part of their person, to apply as needed. Baseball officials would prefer that no foreign substances are used, but they also understand the practical reality: that the baseballs provided for the players are slick, and not always properly prepared.
And while there has been talk of rewriting the rule in the past, workable language of any new regulation is elusive, because of the vexing questions of degree and volume. MLB knows that most pitchers want to have a better feel for the ball partly for the sake of command, which it views as acceptable -- but it can't really approve pine tar and sunscreen in writing because some pitchers might load up one side of the baseball. MLB could eventually implement baseballs with a tacky surface, similar to what is used in Japan, but that hasn't happened yet. The players continue to cover their forearms with sunscreen, or slop some pine tar in their glove, and everybody in the sport continues to honor the gentleman's agreement to look the other way.
The other day, I tweeted that the demonization of individual players for use seems absurd, given the reality that hundreds of pitchers use foreign substances and that hitters, pitchers, baseball officials and umpires all know this goes on. The Indians' Trevor Bauer, one of the few players who has indicated out loud he believes the rules should be obeyed to the letter, responded with some tweets.
What about the demonization of a player who doesn't want to cheat (because that's what it is) talking about the science behind how foreign substances actually affect a pitch and how they can change a game, a career, a player's monetary compensation, and an entire industry? 🤔🤔
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) October 11, 2018
After I mentioned that MLB and the union members -- pitchers and hitters -- hadn't clamored for change, he wrote this:
I think hitters would care a lot more if someone explained it to them like this: hey, had that pitcher not cheated, you would've hit a homer. Instead, you swung and missed and struck out because the ball didn't end up where your eyes told you it would. It had unnatural movement.
— Trevor Bauer (@BauerOutage) October 12, 2018
A rule adjustment is needed, undoubtedly; baseball should either legalize some substance or enforce the rules on the books, rather than hope that the managers and players would be good sports. Bauer's perspective might not be shared by a majority of his peers, but there is some merit in what he says, about a rule being violated and players gleaning a competitive advantage.
But even if MLB worked to construct a new rule to address the foreign-substance quandary, the union might not go along with it. The players' association's recent stance seems to be to resist proposed adjustments to the way games are played unless MLB is willing to revisit major financial issues. That stalemate continues.
Meanwhile, pitchers will continue to reach for the sunscreen and pine tar and whatever else is on their hands and wrists and gloves, easily seen by everybody on the field, and baseball officials will hope that managers maintain the code of silence.
News from around the major leagues
If PhDs were awarded for hitting and pitching, J.D. Martinez and Justin Verlander would have earned those degrees with honors, given their curiosity and their accumulated knowledge. When they played together with the Tigers, Verlander would pick Martinez's brain about the swings of some opposing hitters, asking him about what he saw, like one professor quizzing another, and Martinez shared his observations. They developed a running clubhouse banter that was also fueled by Verlander's assertions about the baseball being juiced, or pitches being tipped, or signs being stolen, with Martinez countering good-naturedly with the possibility that just maybe the hitter had something to do with the hitter's success.
But Martinez played with Verlander long enough to know that on the days the right-hander pitches, he is wholly concentrated on the task at hand -- and does not like to talk with anyone, including teammates. When Martinez steps into the batter's box and hits against his friend and former teammate, Verlander betrays nothing -- there's no smile, no change in expression, no acknowledgment of their past brotherhood. Nothing.
When the game ends, however, Verlander and Martinez will text each other, falling back into the language of their old clubhouse routine of Pitcher vs. Hitter.
• Speaking of old friends, Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Astros coach Alex Cintron have known each other for a couple of decades and worked together in Houston last year, reflexively sharing thoughts on players and strategy on most days. Cintron also talks constantly with Joey Cora, Alex's older brother, who is Alex's baseball mentor. As the Astros-Red Sox series began, Cora decided to suspend his communication with Cintron, because he felt that he might give away some information through the free flow of their baseball talk.
• Good timing: Left-hander Wade Miley, headed into free agency in the fall, has had two strong starts for the Brewers in this postseason, and has pitched well for Milwaukee.
Bad timing: Shortstop Didi Gregorius, eligible for free agency after the 2019 season, will have to recover from Tommy John surgery before rejoining the Yankees' lineup sometime in the middle of next season.
Bad timing: Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal will be a free agent this fall, and on the national stage of the National League Championship Series, he's had some of his worst days of his season.
• Brock Holt had just 367 plate appearances during the regular season, hitting a solid if unspectacular .277. But Holt could play a major role in this series because the strength of the Astros' staff -- throwing with high velocity -- plays to Holt's strength, and this earned him a starting role in the first game of the series Saturday. According to the numbers dug out by Sarah Langs of ESPN Stats & Information, Holt had a .359 average and a .667 slugging percentage when his at-bats ended on pitches 96 mph or faster -- and on pitches 97-plus he hit .348 with a .609 slugging percentage.
• Jacoby Ellsbury did not play a single game in 2018, as he worked through myriad injuries. But unless some team is willing to assume the $47 million he is owed for the next two years (including the $5 million buyout on a 2021 option), the Yankees assume he will play for them next year, when they will be loaded with outfielders again -- Aaron Judge, Aaron Hicks, Giancarlo Stanton and Clint Frazier, among others. The Yankees hold a $12.5 million option on Brett Gardner, which they may pass on.
And today will be better than yesterday.