Mariners Hector Santiago, who was caught with what the umpires feel was a sticky substance in his glove, is MLB’s scape goat in their quest to find a pitcher who is cheating. He was ejected after bing removed in a pitching change in the fifth inning of Sunday’s doubleheader opener against the Chicago White Sox. He will be suspended and the Mariners will not be able to replace him on the roster during that suspension.
The average number of pitchers used in a MLB game is 5. They have played approximately 225 games since the new mandate began 15 days ago. 5 pitchers per team times 225 equals 2250. Let’s round that off to 1900 or so pitchers inspected in all those games. So far they have found one pitcher who was cheating. They think.
But what the commissioner of baseball has done, is another knee jerk reaction to the complaints from big league hitters who can’t hit. When they have only found one pitcher to eject from a game for cheating in the past 225 games and the offensive numbers haven’t noticeably changed, that tells you something. Sticky stuff on a ball is not why you are not hitting.
And what a sad time it is for the umpires in the major leagues. They get booed for calls that fans think they have missed. They get booed for calls that are overturned by someone in the replay studios in New York and now they get booed when they have to check a pitcher’s glove, belt and hat when he leaves the field or any other time a manager asks for them to inspect a starter.
What Mr. Manfred has done, is put a spotlight on cheating in professional baseball. The horrific thought that the game of baseball is corrupt is being looked at every half inning or during every other pitching change and is making fans feel that there is rampant cheating throughout the game. Pitchers cheating by using sticky stuff, hitters illegally altering bats and teams illegitimately stealing signs have been talked about by fans for years around the water cooler. But to have to see the umpires checking every pitcher makes us think it’s a bogus game, every inning of every game now.
There will always be someone who will cheat, steal and lie. That sadly is one of the realities of life. Baseball will always have to put the integrity of the game first. But what they are doing now with checking every pitcher when they leave the field, is not solving the problem. It is a constant reminder that there may be something crooked with what we are watching. Yes there is a need to police the teams and individual players but these inspections are now becoming the focal point of every game.
From Little League baseball to the major leagues, there has been cheating. It is part of the makeup of humans. Cavemen probably used a corked club. Let’s be honest there are plenty of fans out there who don’t have a problem with cheating if it helps their team win. Witness the Houston Astros’ fans who still cheer their players every game. Winning a world series by any means will do that.
Right now this pitcher inspection has to end in its present format. Maybe a baseball official can do it in the tunnel to the clubhouse after every half inning. If they find something, ok, they can make an announcement. Doing it on the field makes a spectacle of it and infuriates both the fans and the players. We don’t go to games to watch the umpires and believe me, they are not happy about having to do it. Being booed for doing your job is not fun.
So how about it Mr. Commissioner, can we have an exciting day at the ballpark watching a baseball game without it becoming another episode of “ Law & Order?” Put the seams back on the baseballs and there will be no need to find something sticky to grip the ball.
