Kids these days. It's just shameful. They have no respect, no sense of history, no appreciation for their forbearers. Used to be pitchers in Major League Baseball treated cheating like an art form. Nowadays they're happy to act like finger-painting kindergarteners in a smock.
It is a fairly well-known fact, by this point, that teams do not care if pitchers apply a foreign substance to a ball so long as it's for purposes of grip, which hitters reason keeps them safer. MLB doesn't seem to mind, either, rarely meting out discipline even though Rule 8.02(a)(4) says pitchers cannot "apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball." Whether it was pine tar or a sunscreen-and-rosin combination that oozed on Pineda's right palm, the Boston Red Sox thought so little of it that they shrugged it off. Which, considering their recent history with pitchers caught using foreign substances, was exactly how they should've handled it.
Still, this should be a matter of pride. So long as baseball continues to pay no mind to those flouting its rules, there ought at least be a common understanding that cheating deserves effort. Blatantly rubbing greasy hair. Tapping an arm with two fingers like a junkie in need of a stick-'em fix. Exposing a gooey green substance that looks like a booger inside your glove during the World Series. No, no and no.
C'mon, Josh Zeid. The Houston reliever covered both of his arms with sunscreen during a recent game, which would've been all well and good had the game not been inside the domed Rogers Centre.
Cheating has gotten so pathetic that it's time for a set of rules to help out those who require assistance in artifice. A handful of veteran pitchers were kind enough to open up their bags of tricks for Yahoo Sports.
For the rest of the article: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/pitchers--guide-to-cheating--how-to-do-it-right-061959306.html
It is a fairly well-known fact, by this point, that teams do not care if pitchers apply a foreign substance to a ball so long as it's for purposes of grip, which hitters reason keeps them safer. MLB doesn't seem to mind, either, rarely meting out discipline even though Rule 8.02(a)(4) says pitchers cannot "apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball." Whether it was pine tar or a sunscreen-and-rosin combination that oozed on Pineda's right palm, the Boston Red Sox thought so little of it that they shrugged it off. Which, considering their recent history with pitchers caught using foreign substances, was exactly how they should've handled it.
Still, this should be a matter of pride. So long as baseball continues to pay no mind to those flouting its rules, there ought at least be a common understanding that cheating deserves effort. Blatantly rubbing greasy hair. Tapping an arm with two fingers like a junkie in need of a stick-'em fix. Exposing a gooey green substance that looks like a booger inside your glove during the World Series. No, no and no.
C'mon, Josh Zeid. The Houston reliever covered both of his arms with sunscreen during a recent game, which would've been all well and good had the game not been inside the domed Rogers Centre.
Cheating has gotten so pathetic that it's time for a set of rules to help out those who require assistance in artifice. A handful of veteran pitchers were kind enough to open up their bags of tricks for Yahoo Sports.
For the rest of the article: http://sports.yahoo.com/news/pitchers--guide-to-cheating--how-to-do-it-right-061959306.html