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Saturday, April 15th— Domingo German had just finished his first perfect cycle through the Minnesota Twins lineup—nine up and nine down. On the way back to the dugout German was stopped by umpire James Hoye for the routine foreign substance check—implemented a few years back. Hoye noticed something sticky on German’s hand and told him to wash it off between innings. When German returned to start his fourth inning of work Hoye checked again and felt there was still some stickiness there. The umpires convened and walked away allowing German to head back out to the mound to pitch.  

Wednesday, April 19th— Max Scherzer was heading out to the mound to pitch the bottom of the third inning. Umpire Phil Cuzzi stops him on his way out to check for foreign substances. Cuzzi believes he feels some stickiness inside Scherzer’s glove and demands Scherzer find a replacement glove before he continues to pitch. Scherzer is able to find a replacement and pitches a scoreless third inning of work. On his way back to the dugout Cuzzi performs another check and now finds stickiness on Scherzer’s hand. Cuzzi then decides to throw Scherzer out of the game for an illegal substance.

Both of these instances occurred less than a week apart. What is the similarity? Well, both pitchers claim the stickiness came from Rosin—a legal substance to use for pitchers. What is the difference? One pitcher was allowed to keep pitching while another was ejected. Why? I believe that is the question going through every baseball fan’s mind right now.

This was a point of emphasis implemented by the league in 2021. The league states that “ A player who possesses or applies foreign substances in violation of the playing rules will be immediately ejected from the game and suspended. The umpiring crew shall be the sole judge as to whether the rules have been violated.” According to Bill Miller, president of the Major League Umpires Association,  “The integrity of the competition is of utmost importance to us. We have worked diligently with MLB to develop an enforcement system that will treat all players and clubs equally.” In the matter of a week, we have had a situation that contradicts treating all players and clubs equally. 

This gray area needs to change. We can’t have rosin or sticky substances be allowed by one umpiring crew while another finds it illegal and an ejectable offense. If that’s the case, why wouldn’t a pitcher decide to use a sticky substance if they know the umpiring crew they have that series will allow it?  It’s not good for the progression of the game and not a great look for the MLB.  

We need some answers. The bigger issue within this all is we never receive a clear explanation from the league. Even though the majority of MLB fans, players, reporters, and management are left with questions pertaining to these issues we never get to see someone from the MLB office step up to the podium to mitigate any doubts. The only person we get to hear from is the crew chief assigned to that game. With this big of an issue, an MLB representative needs to answer questions to provide clarity moving forward. Instead, all of us will still have the exact same questions next week and the week after with no progress being made.