MLB's Cheating Problem Isn't New (But It Might Be Getting Worse)

last week sports illustrated published this article by stephanie epstein and alex pruitt outlining the ways in which major league pitchers are doctoring balls in order to gain a competitive advantage while this story was in a brand new revelation it was certainly part of what seems to be a growing contingent of baseball fans writers and even players who were sounding the alarm about the problem of so-called sticky stuff in the game there have been dozens of youtube videos made on the subject including ones by major league players themselves speculating about the substances used their effects and how prevalent the issue is throughout baseball and while this video will definitely cover the issue of sticky stuff and the potential consequences of what could possibly be mlb's next big scandal in the near future i wanted to first look to the past in order to see if what pitchers are using today is really that much different from other foreign substances and pitch doctoring techniques used throughout the history of the sport we'll start by looking at mlb's current rule against doctoring the baseball according to rule 6.02c no player is permitted to intentionally damage deface or discolor the ball by rubbing it with any type of foreign item or substance including dirt or saliva failure to follow this rule will result in an injection and an automatic 10 game suspension there you go seems simple enough right well as it turns out major league baseball's history with doctored balls is actually a bit hairier than they would probably like to admit so let's get into it shall we when mob first came into existence back in the early 20th century there actually wasn't any rule against doctoring the baseball on the contrary it was as much a part of the game as peanuts and cracker jacks pitchers regularly unloaded mouthfuls of tobacco juice and licorice on the ball loaded them up with mud and grease and scuffed it with sandpaper thumbtacks and bottle caps to make matters worse the league simply didn't have enough baseballs leaving teams with just a handful per game as a result the same dirty scuffed-up ball was used for most of the game being deformed by bats and smacked into the infield dirt the end result was a brown slimy vaguely spherical mess that barely resembled what people today could in good conscience call a baseball not only were these practices allowed they were celebrated future hall of famers jack chesbro and ed walsh were notorious spitballers winning hundreds of games thanks to the pitch before getting banned from the sport forever as part of the 1919 black sox scandal eddie seacot was most famous for his shine ball a pitch that required lathering the ball with a special oil used to treat infields depending on what they put on the ball pitchers were able to make pitches drop cut or fade away from hitters but this all changed following the 1920 season when the league finally started cracking down on the practice for a couple of reasons the first and hopefully most obvious is that lathering spit on the ball is just really gross the second was to improve the offensive environment of the game bringing an end to what was known as the dead ball era but the event that truly put the nail in the coffin for league sanctioned spitballs occurred on august 16th 1920. with yankees right-hander carl mays on the mound indians shortstop ray chapman stepped up to the plate maze who threw with the submarine delivery began his windup what happened next would change the course of baseball history some witnesses blamed it on the dirtiness of the ball others blame the dim twilight of the late afternoon whatever the cause ray chapman did not react to the pitch whatsoever as it sailed straight at his head onlookers recalled that the sound of the ball striking chapman's skull was so loud that the pitcher thought it had hit his bat fielding the ball and throwing it to first base players from both teams rushed to the aid of chapman who attempted to walk before collapsing to the ground unconscious he was taken to a nearby hospital where he died hours later it was the first and to this day only time a player had been killed by a ball in a major league game the death of ray chapman was the end of the line for legal spitballs in major league baseball from that point onward not only was the spit ball banned it was required that a new clean ball be introduced to the field of play on a much more frequent basis making it harder for pitchers to scuff and stain it to their liking as a side note it would be 50 more years until mlb made it necessary for all hitters to wear a batting helmet while up to bat implementing the rule in 1971 now although the spitball was no longer technically legal that doesn't mean it went away for one thing when mlb outlawed the pitch they grandfathered in 17 current pitchers as legal spitballers for the remainder of their careers the last legal spitball was actually thrown in 1934 when hall of famer burley grimes retired as with many things simply outlawing the use of illegal pitches wasn't enough to make them go away whereas before pitchers could doctor the ball out in the open now they had to get creative in hiding their techniques hall of fame pitchers like whitey ford don drysdale and bullet rogan openly admitted to their crimes detailing how they scuffed and shined the balls to their hearts content while on the mound other pitchers like dodgers ace don sutton were more secretive about the practice sutton was once asked in an interview if it was true that he used foreign substances on the ball not true at all he replied vaseline is manufactured right here in the united states for these pictures doctoring the baseball became an art form taking a level of skill and deception attainable only through years of dedicated practice and the master of the art form the picasso if you will was one gaylord jackson perry in his autobiography aptly titled me and the spitter gaylord perry shared intimate details about how exactly he broke the rules providing step-by-step instructions on how to throw his various spitballs and grease balls it was an eye-opening tell-all by a man who had spent years as one of the top pitchers in the game here's the thing though perry published this book in 1974 while he was still playing he would go on to pitch another decade in the big leagues racking up over 300 wins on the back of his spitball he'd constantly mix up where he'd store his signature petroleum jelly perfecting his methodology and keeping batters and umpires alike guessing in fact it wouldn't be until his 21st season that perry would finally be suspended for doctoring the ball witnesses to gaylord perry likened his skill to that of a magician he'd tell everyone how the trick was done and did it time and again anyway this then raises the question if the spitball was that effective and pitchers were seemingly able to get away with it why don't we see players loading up the ball with vaseline nowadays the answer lies with this man this for those of you who don't know is bruce souter aside from possessing one of the best hair beard combos in major league history suitor is most famous for perfecting the pitch that would usher in the end of the spitball the splitter with the advent of the split-fingered fastball pitchers were suddenly able to achieve the action of a spitball without the you know spin soon after the splitter came the cutter and as these new pitches gained in popularity the spitball gradually vanished as the last practitioners were phased out of the league the art of the spitball was lost whereas before pitchers like perry and sutton could teach their teammates the tricks of the trade now there was no one to show new pitchers how it was done though even without the advent of the splitter it's probably unlikely that the spitball would have survived hgtv nowadays with high definition cameras putting every fan on the field with the players pitchers can't quite hide their stuff like they used to not that it matters anyway because major league teams have demonstrated very little motivation to catch cheating pitchers in the act for one simple reason everybody's doing it in a 1987 game between the yankees and the angels television cameras picked up don sutton who by then was pitching for california in the dugout taking what appeared to be sandpaper out of his pocket soon after the new york dugout got a phone call from owner george steinbrenner demanding that manager lou panella asked the umpire to investigate sutton's cheating instead pinella asked steinbrenner what the score was it's one to nothing we're winning steinbrenner said what's that got to do with anything what it means george pinellas shot back is that our guy is cheating better than their guy enforcing these rules largely requires managers to call out a pitcher they suspect of cheating and if there are no teams free of the practice then no manager has reason to do so unless they want their own guys to get thrown out as well this has given pitchers virtually free reign to push the limits of pitch doctoring in order to find out which substances and techniques work better than others which is how we've ended up where we are today around the league pitchers are using substances ranging from pine tar to glue in an effort to pump up spin rates and gain an upper hand over the competition the question then is this if pitchers have been doctoring the ball since the game was created what makes today's stuff any different the answer as with many things today has to do with technology whereas before pitchers relied on feel alone when applying substances to the ball now they can use pitch tracking technology to measure factors like spin rate down to a single rotation per minute and it's not just the individual players reports have been published detailing how clubs have hired actual chemists in order to generate the most optimal concoction of sticky stuff for their pitchers on top of that mob made the decision prior to this season to simultaneously deaden the ball while raising the seams in order to make home runs harder to hit and encourage hitting for contact what's happening instead is a decrease in offensive production never before seen in the history of the game if the current league-wide batting average holds it will be the lowest in the history of the sport you heard that right hitting this year is literally worse than in the dead ball era likewise the k rate is its highest in history with nearly a quarter of all at-bats ending with a strikeout now it's possible many of you enjoy watching pitchers collect double-digit strikeout numbers on a daily basis but as i've made known before i think that the lack of balls in play has made many games less exciting to watch of course that's just my opinion but it would appear that major league baseball seems to agree with me facing mounting pressure from fans and players alike it seems that mlb is finally starting to crack down on the sticky stuff epidemic over the past few weeks four minor league pitchers have been suspended after being caught using foreign substances on june 5th it was reported that mlb would soon be instructing umpires to check starting pitchers at least two times a start with those found to be using illegal substances subject to a 10-day suspension so what comes next well i see it going one of two ways either pitchers respond by quietly decreasing their use of foreign substances and sticky stuff goes the way of this pitball or we see pitchers continue to use it despite the league's wishes risking suspensions and their legacies in the process and have you ever used spider attack while pitching um i don't i don't know i i i don't know if uh i don't know quite i don't quite know how to answer that to be honest if it's the latter it's entirely possible that we could start seeing some of the biggest names in the sport suspended for pitch doctoring in what would be the largest league-wide scandals in steroids and while i sincerely hope it doesn't come to that we'll just have to wait and [Music] see you

Channel: Baseball Historian

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Id: DTdYmsSNoh8

Length: 11min 32sec (692 seconds)

Published: Sat Jun 12 2021