MLB: Crackdown on Pitchers Is Bad For Baseball
There’s no other sport that has been scrutinized for cheating than Major League Baseball. From steroids to gambling, to pine tar, and now pitchers are being examined for sticky substances whenever umps feel pitchers could be cheating. The league itself just keeps taking one black eye after another. However, when it comes to pitchers using any sort of substance, is the reward worth the risk?
When you examine the MLB league year, the season runs from April to November clipping the coldest four months of the year off. But just because it’s spring, doesn’t mean it’s baseball weather. In the northern part of the country, after temperatures of less than 10 degrees, sure 40 feels like a nice spring day but it doesn’t make it easy to throw a baseball. You can take whatever stand you want, but when it comes down to it, there’s no way for a pitcher to protect his hands in these colder months. What are they supposed to do, pitch with gloves on? They’d lose just as much control as not wearing them.
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Between the numbness in fingers in the cold months, and the sweat on their hands in the hot summer sun, how long before pitchers are losing control and beaning batters? As ridiculous as it sounds, it’s only going to take a few slips before batters start getting hurt.
But even if you argue against that, it goes much beyond arguing for MLB regulation for cheating. Each year, the league goes through a long list of new ideas on how to speed up the game. Between the leadoff runner at second base, trying to come up with a pitch clock, and a host of other ideas they’re trying to keep the game moving.
Two scenarios come out of the pitching scrutiny now. Either A. umpires have to go out and check each instance the pitcher takes the mound or B. the ump checks one time and a pitcher can just wait it out and apply whatever later. No matter what they do, they’re just adding back on the time they keep desperately trying to trim off games.
I’m not out here advocating for cheating, but at some point, the MLB needs to pick its battles. If you have a league that’s 162 games in a season in all sorts of weather conditions, you have to concede these players taking precautions. Are the pitchers really trying to have a competitive edge or is their ability to control a 90+ mph pitch in the best interest of safety? That’s the hole the MLB has dug themselves into, because now if a pitcher can use a substance, why can’t batters? No matter what the outcome, there’s no way it’s a level playing field for everyone.
Rick ODonnell aka Caveman Rick has many years covering the Miami Dolphins, Sports, and all sorts of movies and television.
