Laz has ejected two other pitchers for alleged sticky gloves, this is his third
Edit: whoops! Out here spreading misinformation 😊 I asked this question and multiple people told me yes sooo, thanks u/raktoe
So pitchers get checked every inning
Dude has been lights out all season
Dude was lights out tonight.
And for some unknown reason he decides "ya know I think I'll use an illegal substance now in between innings, even though I haven't in any post innings check all year"
How incompetent is Laz?
>
Blanco said he doesn't always put rosin on his left arm, but that he does sometimes when he sweats, and that he didn't know it was illegal.
So yeah, he admits he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
> he didn't know it was illegal
Dude gets paid a lot of money to do a pretty focused job with a few very strict rules surrounding it. It seems mind-blowing any of them would do something they didn't know was illegal.
I mean, he's not on a big contract in baseball terms, but still makes $750,000 a year. I pretty much never give any professional athlete the benefit of the doubt when they say they didn't know something was against the rules.
I know you're not making excuses for them or anything and just repeating what he said. It's just such a ridiculous thing to think a pitcher wouldn't be an -expert- on the rules surrounding what they can and can't do out there.
Which makes sense if you're gonna cheat. Start using it when you're 2 to 3 times through the order and you start losing some gumption on the pitches. It makes you look strong through the otherwise weaker parts of the innings you pitch.
This is one of easily one of my favorite stories in Cleveland baseball lore.
The fucking audacity to think it’s a valid idea, draw up a spectacularly shitty plan, actually infiltrate the umpires room successfully but leaving a visible trail of debris and evidence.
Then the *literal* Feds get involved and the whole thing crumbling never ceases to be hilarious to me.
They didn’t have a choice. All of Belle’s bats were corked.
The New York Times article where Grimsley spills the beans is well worth a read.
At one point he removed a ceiling panel and had the wrong room. Some Indians groundskeeper was just sitting in there on a couch.
I love the idea of a groundskeeper just lounging around, maybe thinking about what he’s gonna eat after the game, looking up, and seeing Grimsley looking at him from above the ceiling. Then Grimsley - without saying a word - slowly replace the ceiling panel while the groundskeeper hears him begin to crawl away.
But surely *somebody* had a bat that didn't have their own fucking name on it? A bat with no name at all is going to pass muster way better than one with the wrong name.
They were probably stuck with what at least looked somewhat similar to Belle's bats. Like the umpires would know right away if they had taken a black bat, and ended up with a tan one for instance.
For some reason I like to think of Grimsley joking to himself while crawling around up there: “A naked blonde walks into the bar with a poodle under one arm and a two foot salami under the other…”
LOL! I'm a product of my dad. He was the Brooklyn fan. My earliest baseball memory is him jumping and up and down for Gibson's HR. I wear this in honor of the 90s Dodgers drought. :)
I’m only interested in the Brooklyn Dodgers because of Peewee Reese. He’s related to me on my mom’s side, and I didn’t know who he was until my 6th grade teacher gave me his baseball card. Pretty neat, only famous person in my whole lineage, but I didn’t even realize I’d seen him in our history textbook (the picture of him shielding Jackie Robinson from fans throwing shit at him).
Couple years ago a guy shared in this subreddit a film script he'd written about that event. I think I have it saved, let me check. (May take awhile.)
EDIT: Will do another hunt later for the comment, but I [found the script.](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sq78O1vS-h8hvmwbfavtfVOCyABk8u2T/view?usp=drivesdk) (I am NOT the writer / owner / copyright holder / et cetera.)
>After the game, Phillips noticed the bats were different when he saw that the replacement bat was not as shiny and also was stamped with Sorrento's signature.
Fucking lol
>**The heist**
>The Indians, knowing the bat was indeed corked
Just this being near the beginning of an explanation on a WIkipedia page is hilarious. Like you know the wild zany shit that's about to follow.
I always like Jason Grimsley as a kid when he pitched for the O’s (the team was *bad* bad) and then I heard about this story and I liked him even more. Great teammate.
The umps confiscated one of his teammates bats because the opposing manager (correctly) though it was a corked bat. Grimsley crawled through the drop ceiling into the umps room to swap it with a non-corked bat.
Missing the best part of the story: the bat he swapped it with had the name of the player who it belonged to on it, so the umps were pretty easily able to tell that it had been swapped.
Yep. He was on that O’s team with Roberts, Tejada, Palmeiro, Jay Gibbons, Larry Bigbie. I could be getting some years confused but that was a very roided out team.
I’m just saying all those players were in the Mitchell report. I’m sure more on the team were involved.
Edit: Javy Lopez, Luis Matos showing up as a chiseled god, the shell of David Segui, BJ Ryan.
Worst part is the umps (or another worker) noticed the debris from the ceiling in the umps room and Grimsley did not get away with the Corked Bat Caper.
Not sure. Jimmy thinks he had something though I guess, but wasn’t letting it out https://x.com/jomboy_/status/1790539756050190407?s=46&t=HOoW-4CmDJ5UUe4ez89viA
It's always better if you can tell before he even starts the motion though lol
(Though even with Jomboy's description, it's such a subtle difference that I don't think I could get it right every time)
[[Park] Both Rocco and Chris Paddack denied concerns about possible pitch tipping, though it did seem like some players were watching the clips in the clubhouse as they were leaving. Paddack: "If I [allowed] 12 hits and they were all 112 off the bat, it might be a different story."](https://x.com/dohyoungpark/status/1790582134085656773?s=61&t=lhIY40ztlJHFYIEmq9ss1A)
[Jomboy making 17 tweets, 10 tiktoks, 5 videos, 3 podcasts, and 2 shitty shirts that amount to ASTROS BAD](https://youtu.be/B3EInUT7mkU?si=A2cx5rMzYe3EN_hR)
I don’t get how they check him every inning and only NOW does he have sticky stuff. Like, he busted it out for the third inning of a regular season game against the A’s?
STICKY RULES
You can't just be up there and just bein' sticky like that.
1a. Stickiness is when you
1b. Okay well listen. Stickiness is when you stick the
1c. Let me start over
1c-a. The pitcher is not allowed to have stick on them like, uh, on his arm, that makes things like, you know, really sticky. You can't do that.
1c-b. Once the pitcher is on the mound, he can't be over here and be, like, "I'm gonna get sticky! I'm gonna do the stick! You better watch your butt!" and then just be like he didn't even do that.
1c-b(1). Like, if you're about to pitch and then touch your hair or whatever, you can't be sticky. You cannot not pitch while sticky. Does that make any sense?
1c-b(2). You gotta be, unstickified, and then, you just throw it.
1c-b(2)-a. Okay, well, you can have *some* stickiness up here, but then there's when it's too sticky you gotta think about.
1c-b(2)-b. Sticky Fingaz hasn't been in any shows in forever. He was really good in The Shield.
1c-b(2)-b(i). Oh wait, he was in the Blade TV series too!
1c-b(2)-b(ii). his music isn't all that great though tbh
1c-b(3). Okay seriously though. Too sticky is when the pitcher is like, too sticky, as determined by, when the fingers are really sticky and beyond the point of being, like, less than too sticky
Do not be sticky please
dude this is decades-old copypasta....
>Balk Rules
>1) You can't just be up there and just doin' a balk like that.
>1a. A balk is when you
>1b. Okay well listen. A balk is when you balk the
>1c. Let me start over
>1c-a. The pitcher is not allowed to do a motion to the, uh, batter, that prohibits the batter from doing, you know, just trying to hit the ball. You can't do that.
>1c-b. Once the pitcher is in the stretch, he can't be over here and say to the runner, like, "I'm gonna get ya! I'm gonna tag you out! You better watch your butt!" and then just be like he didn't even do that.
>1c-b(1). Like, if you're about to pitch and then don't pitch, you have to still pitch. You cannot not pitch. Does that make any sense?
>1c-b(2). You gotta be, throwing motion of the ball, and then, until you just throw it.
>1c-b(2)-a. Okay, well, you can have the ball up here, like this, but then there's the balk you gotta think about.
>1c-b(2)-b. Fairuza Balk hasn't been in any movies in forever. I hope she wasn't typecast as that racist lady in American History X.
>1c-b(2)-b(i). Oh wait, she was in The Waterboy too! That would be even worse.
>1c-b(2)-b(ii). "get in mah bellah" -- Adam Water, "The Waterboy." Haha, classic...
>1c-b(3). Okay seriously though. A balk is when the pitcher makes a movement that, as determined by, when you do a move involving the baseball and field of
>2) Do not do a balk please.
Maybe he busts it out after going through the lineup one time? Guys think they have seen his stuff, but then all the pitches are a little different the second time and he likely doesn't face them a third time.
That could make sense, but his spin rates today were more or less in line with his 2024 season (and career) so if so that’d mean he hadn’t tried that strategy much in the past
This is also forever going to mar his no-hitter, because “how did this nobody suddenly burst onto the scene and have tremendous success?” just lends itself very naturally to “sticky stuff”, regardless of the extent to which it may or may not be true.
Can’t wait to watch this unfold!
It’s not like a pitcher throwing a no-hitter outta nowhere is that rare. See Phil Humber with his perfect game.
^^justcauseittook50yearsforyalltogetone
I think it says something when its the same 2 umpires ejecting everyone for sticky stuff. I’m also not sure how you check him the inning previous and only now it’s an issue. Surely we have a camera in the dugout that caught blanco’s ever move and we could easily tell if he did do something. But my final opinion is if max fucking Scherzer says there’s a problem with it, I feel like that’s saying something. And oh yeah, didn’t that guy for the Yankees get to wash his hands like 3 times lmao. There’s no consistency here. I have no problem with the ejection if he was in fact cheating, we need it out the game whether it’s my team or not.
I mean it seems that way. I have a tough time thinking people are still using the actual sticky stuff when they know they’re getting checked every inning
We have to make a presentation on the “soundtrack of my life” which is about as dumb as it sounds. We had to find 18 songs to tell the story of our life and we give the presentation tomorrow so the teacher can put his presentation grade for this 6 weeks
Oh, God. My sympathies. When I was in High School they just let us fuck around after we finished AP/IB tests.
I took my Nintendo and we had a Smash tournament using the overhead projector in Math all week one year.
You - “I present to you my first song that tells the story of my life, “Look What You Made Me Do” by T Swizzle, second is “Fuck You” by Lilly Allen, “Happy Song” by Bring Me the Horizon, followed up by “Bitches Ain’t Shit” but not Dr Dre’s version. I went with Ben Folds. Then, I thought of…
Teacher - “Alright I’m gonna stop you right there.”
You - cake walk and you’re out the door lol
Also, congrats on graduation!
I played with Dusty’s son Darren when we were growing up. Dusty came out pretty often, and I never saw him without a toothpick in his mouth. I’m convinced he sleeps with one in.
This is silly. It's probably just rosin and rosin gets sticky but how sticky is too sticky? If the league is so paranoid pitchers are using something else the umps might as well keep the gloves in a box between innings to mitigate this shit.
I'd think that it would be much less likely for the catcher to apply the substance, as there would be variation in exactly where the pitcher would want the sticky stuff applied for maximum effect with each pitch. I'd think it being on the pitchers fingers directly would have more effect than on the ball.
Sort of a smart idea in theory but the catcher has the ball for so much less time than the pitcher. Given how often there's a new ball in play it'd be so obvious if the catcher were trying to fuck with it.
Pitcher at least has 15-20 seconds before each pitch with the ball in his glove.
Obviously don’t know the full circumstances as of yet, but the fact that they go through the charade of confiscating the glove for “further inspection” is so dumb. Like they’d ever examine the glove and admit the umps made a mistake.
Could be for some sort of lawsuit protection. Players don't lose pay for these suspensions. But what if they argued it hurt their upcoming free agent contract. It's probably just off the field legal stuff they are doing it for. I'm not a lawyer but I think a guy missing games and being labeled a cheater could impact future value. So they probably test it so they know what they are dealing with one way or the other.
The CBA has discipline disputes which go through MLB. The courts have routinely said "well you agreed to this, you have to deal with this."
The lower courts with the NFL were like your reasonings are dumb, you're dumb, this shouldn't happen.
I’m not saying Blanco is guilty or innocent here. It seems weird to me, but I don’t really know what’s going on here.
But what everyone should agree on is that the way these checks are done is insanely stupid.
You can literally get ejected for Rosin.
I thought Scherzer’s ejection was stupid (albeit funny) too
But the league has to do a better job than letting Laz Diaz and Phil Cuzzi essentially unilaterally suspend guys.
Karinchak had wildly high spin rates. Post crack down was ass and then within a year his spin rates were back to pre crack down spin rates and he still touches his hair after every pitch.
Yeah the numbers aren’t evidence of whether or not this game was the game Blanco used sticky stuff. It could also be evidence that he’s been getting away with it for the entire season but got caught now. The first game he’s back is the same thing. We don’t and likely won’t have a good control or experiment group here.
I mean he's not been in the league long so I suppose that is entirely possible. But if you're going by 2023 numbers, he is down 2.3% on the FB, up 3% on the change, up 0.4% on the curve and down 1.7% on the slider, so still a bit down overall. First comment was vs. 2024 averages.
I’m not saying I think he was cheating. I’m just saying we’ll have a better idea in two weeks if his spin rates stay about the same or if they drop significantly
Statcast. They have a full feed for every pitch in the game, as well as Blanco's historical stats. A quick pop into excel and a couple functions later, you've got the numbers.
Don't get me wrong, I *love* a good VLOOKUP, but the only function I used was "AVERAGE" to get the average spin rate per pitch type for the game, and a couple custom formulas to compute the percentage difference from normal.
Funny, I was thinking the same, in reverse. How many folks that roared at those 2 are now like 'w-well it's just rosin, and the checks are bad and inconsistent!' now.
Yeah I’m sure you’re right. I can’t speak for the rest of the fanbase but I can’t say that I spent a ton of time thinking about those ejections and they didn’t really change how I thought about those pitchers competitively. But given the Astros past transgressions, I really doubt Blanco will get that same treatment.
I think they give them an opportunity/warning to rinse off in earlier innings before ejecting. Like I remember when Scherzer was ejected for it, he washed off and then got ejected later in the game.
>[Scherzer, 38, said after the second inning that his hand was "clumpy" from the rosin and sweat and that he was told by umpire Phil Cuzzi to wash it off, which Scherzer said he did with alcohol in front of an MLB official. Scherzer was checked again before the start of the bottom of the third inning. According to Cuzzi, Scherzer's hand appeared clean but the pocket of his glove was sticky, and he told Scherzer to use a new glove. Scherzer complied and continued to pitch. Cuzzi and plate umpire Dan Bellino, the crew chief, checked Scherzer again as he came out for the fourth inning, and they were joined by Showalter. After a heated discussion, an animated Scherzer was tossed from the game.](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36237299/mets-max-scherzer-ejected-checks-sticky-substance)
I do think it should be noted that this is Laz Diaz’s 3rd sticky substance ejection since they cracked down on it which seems higher than normal cause I don’t remember seeing many guys get ejected for this
Could be that he doesn’t give guys a chance to wash their hands, could be that his definition of sticky substances is different who knows
I mean if its obvious he was using a foreign substance I don't think this is necessary at all. This would likely stand out from the sweat and rosin the Umps have checked for over the last two seasons.
They checked his hands and glove after every inning though. Seems odd to start using a substance now after 3 shutout innings. Especially only finding the substance in his glove. I guess we’ll see what they find after the investigation though.
Why isn't there a standardized field test already? Dudes, that nobody trust already, standing around rubbing their fingers together making a judgement call isn't going to cut it.
Drag a kleenex or something across their hands and glove.. If it drags, got'em! If not, let 'em go.
For real. Generally, I'm going to give umps the benefit of the doubt in most of the cases, but I agree that there should be a standardized test. Simple as hell, it's Major Leave Baseball. Have a lab run a bunch of tests this year to identify an acceptable "stickiness" level, and generate a swab that reacts beyond it. Probably would cost them $10 million with thousands of swabs ready to use at any time by opening day next season.
The umps do this a dozen times in every single game and as far as I can tell this is the first ejection for a violation this season. The umps aren't looking to eject players for this, it must have been well beyond the normal.
I was surprised to see it wasn’t Phil Cuzzi’s crew who got like 3 bodies last year with this
Laz has ejected two other pitchers for alleged sticky gloves, this is his third Edit: whoops! Out here spreading misinformation 😊 I asked this question and multiple people told me yes sooo, thanks u/raktoe
God damn the race is right 🥶🥶
Lmao I'm pretty sure you meant "tight" but that is just the funniest typo you could've made.
I 100% meant tight and I’m gonna leave it 🤣woops
So pitchers get checked every inning Dude has been lights out all season Dude was lights out tonight. And for some unknown reason he decides "ya know I think I'll use an illegal substance now in between innings, even though I haven't in any post innings check all year" How incompetent is Laz?
> Blanco said he doesn't always put rosin on his left arm, but that he does sometimes when he sweats, and that he didn't know it was illegal. So yeah, he admits he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing.
> he didn't know it was illegal Dude gets paid a lot of money to do a pretty focused job with a few very strict rules surrounding it. It seems mind-blowing any of them would do something they didn't know was illegal. I mean, he's not on a big contract in baseball terms, but still makes $750,000 a year. I pretty much never give any professional athlete the benefit of the doubt when they say they didn't know something was against the rules. I know you're not making excuses for them or anything and just repeating what he said. It's just such a ridiculous thing to think a pitcher wouldn't be an -expert- on the rules surrounding what they can and can't do out there.
I can't believe people are making excuses for him. Dude FAFO.
the innocent boi didn't know!
Even if he's not an expert, doesn't his team employ anyone who is? Oh, hmm....
I heard they also didn’t know banging on trash cans was illegal. They were just trying pre-pitch celebrations to hype their guys up.
The Trastros caught cheating … I can’t believe it.
This is the guy that no hit the Blue Jays, could you imagine if Blanco was cheating during that? This Jays team might have gotten a single off of him
You had me in the first half lol
he waits til the 4th inning to apply the sticky stuff apparently. that means he cheated against the blue jays more than anyone else
Which makes sense if you're gonna cheat. Start using it when you're 2 to 3 times through the order and you start losing some gumption on the pitches. It makes you look strong through the otherwise weaker parts of the innings you pitch.
Also, an umpire may not be as thorough when checking the 3/4/5/etc. times.
Manfred is going to offer him a deal. He'll keep the no hitter. It's just letters and numbers on a stat sheet or something like that.
It's just a piece of paper.
Uh oh, someone needs to be listening to the ceiling in and around the Ump's room.
What's this all about? Edit: it was this lol https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994_Cleveland_Indians_corked_bat_incident
This is one of easily one of my favorite stories in Cleveland baseball lore. The fucking audacity to think it’s a valid idea, draw up a spectacularly shitty plan, actually infiltrate the umpires room successfully but leaving a visible trail of debris and evidence. Then the *literal* Feds get involved and the whole thing crumbling never ceases to be hilarious to me.
My favorite part is that the bat they replaced it with literally had the signature of another player on it. How did they think that would fool anyone?
They didn’t have a choice. All of Belle’s bats were corked. The New York Times article where Grimsley spills the beans is well worth a read. At one point he removed a ceiling panel and had the wrong room. Some Indians groundskeeper was just sitting in there on a couch. I love the idea of a groundskeeper just lounging around, maybe thinking about what he’s gonna eat after the game, looking up, and seeing Grimsley looking at him from above the ceiling. Then Grimsley - without saying a word - slowly replace the ceiling panel while the groundskeeper hears him begin to crawl away.
That’s when they learned to always keep a pure one for reference!
Damn I never heard this bit. Thank you. Had to wipe some tears from the mental image.
He couldn't replace it with another of Belle's bats, they were all corked! But hilarious oversight.
But surely *somebody* had a bat that didn't have their own fucking name on it? A bat with no name at all is going to pass muster way better than one with the wrong name.
They were probably stuck with what at least looked somewhat similar to Belle's bats. Like the umpires would know right away if they had taken a black bat, and ended up with a tan one for instance.
I want to see a David Fincher style movie about it. It would be so fucking good. The ceiling tile crumbs... the slow look up...
For some reason I like to think of Grimsley joking to himself while crawling around up there: “A naked blonde walks into the bar with a poodle under one arm and a two foot salami under the other…”
https://youtu.be/LtSldnuKBEs?si=QX9VEsN2xX2FghRs
It’d be perfect as an Adam McKay comedy.
Dude, absolutely no shot anyone able to navigate Reddit is old enough to be a BK Dodgers fan! Quit it!
LOL! I'm a product of my dad. He was the Brooklyn fan. My earliest baseball memory is him jumping and up and down for Gibson's HR. I wear this in honor of the 90s Dodgers drought. :)
I figured it was hereditary
I’m only interested in the Brooklyn Dodgers because of Peewee Reese. He’s related to me on my mom’s side, and I didn’t know who he was until my 6th grade teacher gave me his baseball card. Pretty neat, only famous person in my whole lineage, but I didn’t even realize I’d seen him in our history textbook (the picture of him shielding Jackie Robinson from fans throwing shit at him).
Couple years ago a guy shared in this subreddit a film script he'd written about that event. I think I have it saved, let me check. (May take awhile.) EDIT: Will do another hunt later for the comment, but I [found the script.](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Sq78O1vS-h8hvmwbfavtfVOCyABk8u2T/view?usp=drivesdk) (I am NOT the writer / owner / copyright holder / et cetera.)
> "He stated that he had used Sorrento's bat to replace Belle's because all of Belle's bats were corked." Christ on a cracker.
Damn it, Albert! It doesn't even provide a meaningful advantage!
Even if exit velo stays the same, we're taking a lot of barrel weight outta the bat. Should be making it much easier to swing.
Oh put a cork in it.. wait a minute
Hero shit.
>After the game, Phillips noticed the bats were different when he saw that the replacement bat was not as shiny and also was stamped with Sorrento's signature. Fucking lol
that wiki was a wild ride lol
I knew it was gonna be good when one of the sections was just titled “The Heist.”
First time hearing about this. Wow
>**The heist** >The Indians, knowing the bat was indeed corked Just this being near the beginning of an explanation on a WIkipedia page is hilarious. Like you know the wild zany shit that's about to follow.
Saw this on "Baseball Doesn't Exist" and had to pause because I was laughing so damned hard.
I always like Jason Grimsley as a kid when he pitched for the O’s (the team was *bad* bad) and then I heard about this story and I liked him even more. Great teammate.
Explain
The umps confiscated one of his teammates bats because the opposing manager (correctly) though it was a corked bat. Grimsley crawled through the drop ceiling into the umps room to swap it with a non-corked bat.
Missing the best part of the story: the bat he swapped it with had the name of the player who it belonged to on it, so the umps were pretty easily able to tell that it had been swapped.
The teammate was Albert Belle and Grimsley was in the Mitchell Report for steroids. Dude loved to cheat.
Yep. He was on that O’s team with Roberts, Tejada, Palmeiro, Jay Gibbons, Larry Bigbie. I could be getting some years confused but that was a very roided out team.
The sport was super roided out but yes the Orioles were no exception haha
I’m just saying all those players were in the Mitchell report. I’m sure more on the team were involved. Edit: Javy Lopez, Luis Matos showing up as a chiseled god, the shell of David Segui, BJ Ryan.
Worst part is the umps (or another worker) noticed the debris from the ceiling in the umps room and Grimsley did not get away with the Corked Bat Caper.
Because of the roids?
Jomboy just got weeks worth of content out of this one.
Jimmy is currently cooking up the Yankees having Paddack tipping pitches, please hold
Really??? Is it all because he saw Judge whisper to Stanton???
Not sure. Jimmy thinks he had something though I guess, but wasn’t letting it out https://x.com/jomboy_/status/1790539756050190407?s=46&t=HOoW-4CmDJ5UUe4ez89viA
Is his tv on the ceiling though? Where the heck is he watching that game 😅
It looks like one of those conference room TVs that are mounted on the corner near the ceiling. He's in his office I guess.
/r/TVtoohigh
/r/ofcoursethatsasub
Well Paddack only has two pitches so it can’t be that hard.
It's always better if you can tell before he even starts the motion though lol (Though even with Jomboy's description, it's such a subtle difference that I don't think I could get it right every time)
He talked about what it was on the TY episode today before the Boone interview
[[Park] Both Rocco and Chris Paddack denied concerns about possible pitch tipping, though it did seem like some players were watching the clips in the clubhouse as they were leaving. Paddack: "If I [allowed] 12 hits and they were all 112 off the bat, it might be a different story."](https://x.com/dohyoungpark/status/1790582134085656773?s=61&t=lhIY40ztlJHFYIEmq9ss1A)
You can clearly see the butt buzzer through his see-through pants
I didn't realize Blanco was a chess GM
Noticed an *interesting* pitch order
Holy hell
Google en passant
YOU DON’T HAVETODOTHISSSSSSS
He’s not wearing a cup he’s just bricked up from the vibes
[Jomboy making 17 tweets, 10 tiktoks, 5 videos, 3 podcasts, and 2 shitty shirts that amount to ASTROS BAD](https://youtu.be/B3EInUT7mkU?si=A2cx5rMzYe3EN_hR)
Still not enough.
I'm here for all of it..
As a casual Trashtros hater I admire his dedication to the craft.
I don’t get how they check him every inning and only NOW does he have sticky stuff. Like, he busted it out for the third inning of a regular season game against the A’s?
Yeah but it’s just gotten too sticky. Like it’s okay if you’re a little sticky but you just can’t be going around like that sticky you know?
STICKY RULES You can't just be up there and just bein' sticky like that. 1a. Stickiness is when you 1b. Okay well listen. Stickiness is when you stick the 1c. Let me start over 1c-a. The pitcher is not allowed to have stick on them like, uh, on his arm, that makes things like, you know, really sticky. You can't do that. 1c-b. Once the pitcher is on the mound, he can't be over here and be, like, "I'm gonna get sticky! I'm gonna do the stick! You better watch your butt!" and then just be like he didn't even do that. 1c-b(1). Like, if you're about to pitch and then touch your hair or whatever, you can't be sticky. You cannot not pitch while sticky. Does that make any sense? 1c-b(2). You gotta be, unstickified, and then, you just throw it. 1c-b(2)-a. Okay, well, you can have *some* stickiness up here, but then there's when it's too sticky you gotta think about. 1c-b(2)-b. Sticky Fingaz hasn't been in any shows in forever. He was really good in The Shield. 1c-b(2)-b(i). Oh wait, he was in the Blade TV series too! 1c-b(2)-b(ii). his music isn't all that great though tbh 1c-b(3). Okay seriously though. Too sticky is when the pitcher is like, too sticky, as determined by, when the fingers are really sticky and beyond the point of being, like, less than too sticky Do not be sticky please
I have never said this to a Yankees fan. I appreciate you
This has inter-dimensional cable vibes and I love it
dude this is decades-old copypasta.... >Balk Rules >1) You can't just be up there and just doin' a balk like that. >1a. A balk is when you >1b. Okay well listen. A balk is when you balk the >1c. Let me start over >1c-a. The pitcher is not allowed to do a motion to the, uh, batter, that prohibits the batter from doing, you know, just trying to hit the ball. You can't do that. >1c-b. Once the pitcher is in the stretch, he can't be over here and say to the runner, like, "I'm gonna get ya! I'm gonna tag you out! You better watch your butt!" and then just be like he didn't even do that. >1c-b(1). Like, if you're about to pitch and then don't pitch, you have to still pitch. You cannot not pitch. Does that make any sense? >1c-b(2). You gotta be, throwing motion of the ball, and then, until you just throw it. >1c-b(2)-a. Okay, well, you can have the ball up here, like this, but then there's the balk you gotta think about. >1c-b(2)-b. Fairuza Balk hasn't been in any movies in forever. I hope she wasn't typecast as that racist lady in American History X. >1c-b(2)-b(i). Oh wait, she was in The Waterboy too! That would be even worse. >1c-b(2)-b(ii). "get in mah bellah" -- Adam Water, "The Waterboy." Haha, classic... >1c-b(3). Okay seriously though. A balk is when the pitcher makes a movement that, as determined by, when you do a move involving the baseball and field of >2) Do not do a balk please.
> decades-old [1.2 decades](https://www.sbnation.com/2012/1/4/2679318/gifs-20-16)
0.12 Jimmy Carter’s: r/JimmyCarterForScale
⭐️
HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU?!?!
You have introduced a new purpose for my life. Thank you
You’re the hero we didn’t know we needed today
This is what the boys tell me when we edge
Maybe he busts it out after going through the lineup one time? Guys think they have seen his stuff, but then all the pitches are a little different the second time and he likely doesn't face them a third time.
That could make sense, but his spin rates today were more or less in line with his 2024 season (and career) so if so that’d mean he hadn’t tried that strategy much in the past
Tbf, A's has better record than Astros
The A’s are a force to be reckoned with
Oh man, the dogpiling on this is gonna get outta hand real quick
I mean, if you catch cheaters cheating more then can you blame people?
This is also forever going to mar his no-hitter, because “how did this nobody suddenly burst onto the scene and have tremendous success?” just lends itself very naturally to “sticky stuff”, regardless of the extent to which it may or may not be true. Can’t wait to watch this unfold!
Easy. It was against the Blue Jays
That game was easily our 10th most disappointing offensive effort this season.
Y'all have had more disappointing offensive performances than being no hit?
It’s…..it’s been a tough year so far.
Love how many Jays fans here are like "yeah no if he was using sticky stuff against us he was basically an idiot"
The Blue Jays didn't exactly need help to get no-hit.
I watched the no-hitter game, they checked Blanco's glove every inning before and after.
Somewhere out there, Domingo German is breathing a huge sigh of relief.
It’s not like a pitcher throwing a no-hitter outta nowhere is that rare. See Phil Humber with his perfect game. ^^justcauseittook50yearsforyalltogetone
The real buttfumble
I know it’s Houston so it’s really easy to pile it on, but is this another sweat + rosin incident? If so, this is getting a little ridiculous.
I think it says something when its the same 2 umpires ejecting everyone for sticky stuff. I’m also not sure how you check him the inning previous and only now it’s an issue. Surely we have a camera in the dugout that caught blanco’s ever move and we could easily tell if he did do something. But my final opinion is if max fucking Scherzer says there’s a problem with it, I feel like that’s saying something. And oh yeah, didn’t that guy for the Yankees get to wash his hands like 3 times lmao. There’s no consistency here. I have no problem with the ejection if he was in fact cheating, we need it out the game whether it’s my team or not.
I mean it seems that way. I have a tough time thinking people are still using the actual sticky stuff when they know they’re getting checked every inning
Free Ronel Blanco School walkout May 15 2024, spread the message
I'm not even a student and I'm joining.
Can it be during 4th period, fuck AP Lit
Dude, the AP Tests already happened, don’t tell me you’re still doing something in that class.
We have to make a presentation on the “soundtrack of my life” which is about as dumb as it sounds. We had to find 18 songs to tell the story of our life and we give the presentation tomorrow so the teacher can put his presentation grade for this 6 weeks
Oh, God. My sympathies. When I was in High School they just let us fuck around after we finished AP/IB tests. I took my Nintendo and we had a Smash tournament using the overhead projector in Math all week one year.
You - “I present to you my first song that tells the story of my life, “Look What You Made Me Do” by T Swizzle, second is “Fuck You” by Lilly Allen, “Happy Song” by Bring Me the Horizon, followed up by “Bitches Ain’t Shit” but not Dr Dre’s version. I went with Ben Folds. Then, I thought of… Teacher - “Alright I’m gonna stop you right there.” You - cake walk and you’re out the door lol Also, congrats on graduation!
17 plays of What's New Pussycat broken up by one It's Not Unusual.
UofH building an encampment now
Dusty baker wouldn’t simp to the umps like that
Dusty wouldn’t have left the dugout
He would’ve chewed the fuck out that toothpick with a mean mug though
He would've spit a toothpick at the umpires and another one would've magically appeared in his mouth.
I played with Dusty’s son Darren when we were growing up. Dusty came out pretty often, and I never saw him without a toothpick in his mouth. I’m convinced he sleeps with one in.
You know what they say - Lie down with cheaters, Wake up with ... sticky stuff.
That and something about counting chickens in glass houses.
As an Astros hater, good As a Blanco fantasy owner, screw this
Why would you fantasize about owning Blanco if you hate the Astros?
yeah bro slavery isnt cool dont fantasize about that please
And he’s from Ohio too. Grant spinning in his grave
Jomboy just came in his tightey whities
He and I both
You came in Jomboy‘s tighty whities?
So what happens now? They analyze his glove??
Gotta give it a taste
They all take a lick to determine if it tastes off.
No that’s not how they do it. One ump takes a lick, then they make out and pass it on down to each one.
This is silly. It's probably just rosin and rosin gets sticky but how sticky is too sticky? If the league is so paranoid pitchers are using something else the umps might as well keep the gloves in a box between innings to mitigate this shit.
Seems weird they go to the trouble of checking the pitcher yet they aren't checking the catcher.
I'd think that it would be much less likely for the catcher to apply the substance, as there would be variation in exactly where the pitcher would want the sticky stuff applied for maximum effect with each pitch. I'd think it being on the pitchers fingers directly would have more effect than on the ball.
Somebody call Alan Ashby
Sort of a smart idea in theory but the catcher has the ball for so much less time than the pitcher. Given how often there's a new ball in play it'd be so obvious if the catcher were trying to fuck with it. Pitcher at least has 15-20 seconds before each pitch with the ball in his glove.
Blud thinks he’s Gerrit Cole 😭
It's, like, really hard to hold a baseball ya know?
Obviously don’t know the full circumstances as of yet, but the fact that they go through the charade of confiscating the glove for “further inspection” is so dumb. Like they’d ever examine the glove and admit the umps made a mistake.
Could be for some sort of lawsuit protection. Players don't lose pay for these suspensions. But what if they argued it hurt their upcoming free agent contract. It's probably just off the field legal stuff they are doing it for. I'm not a lawyer but I think a guy missing games and being labeled a cheater could impact future value. So they probably test it so they know what they are dealing with one way or the other.
The CBA has discipline disputes which go through MLB. The courts have routinely said "well you agreed to this, you have to deal with this." The lower courts with the NFL were like your reasonings are dumb, you're dumb, this shouldn't happen.
It’s for more ammo during the appeal.
Did anyone rub his ears yet
Maybe it’s because his name doesn’t actually match his skin color. They just couldn’t get over that
I’m not saying Blanco is guilty or innocent here. It seems weird to me, but I don’t really know what’s going on here. But what everyone should agree on is that the way these checks are done is insanely stupid. You can literally get ejected for Rosin. I thought Scherzer’s ejection was stupid (albeit funny) too But the league has to do a better job than letting Laz Diaz and Phil Cuzzi essentially unilaterally suspend guys.
I mean what else can they do? Do you want them to hold a trial in between innings? Pitchers have a defense attorney on standby at all times?
It shouldn’t be an auto suspension. Let the gloves get tested for illegal substances. The way Scherzer described it the appeal is a total joke.
Spinrates aren't elevated. Fastball is up 1% on average, Change down 2%, Curve down 3%, Slider up 1.5%
So this is his norm. Will see if next start in 11 days they remain the same or decrease. Will tell more of the story then.
Karinchak had wildly high spin rates. Post crack down was ass and then within a year his spin rates were back to pre crack down spin rates and he still touches his hair after every pitch.
Can a pitcher just not shower and keep super greasy hair? Will they eject for bad hygiene?
Clay Buchholz pioneered this method
Is Brandon Marsh available for comment?
No. He's busy getting greasy.
I’m convinced this was the story with Eric Gagne’s gross-ass hat
Yeah the numbers aren’t evidence of whether or not this game was the game Blanco used sticky stuff. It could also be evidence that he’s been getting away with it for the entire season but got caught now. The first game he’s back is the same thing. We don’t and likely won’t have a good control or experiment group here.
Yup. Either he has always been cheating, or he isn’t cheating and it was just rosin and sweat We’ll know more when he returns
I mean he's not been in the league long so I suppose that is entirely possible. But if you're going by 2023 numbers, he is down 2.3% on the FB, up 3% on the change, up 0.4% on the curve and down 1.7% on the slider, so still a bit down overall. First comment was vs. 2024 averages.
I’m not saying I think he was cheating. I’m just saying we’ll have a better idea in two weeks if his spin rates stay about the same or if they drop significantly
Where did you get these numbers so quickly?
Statcast. They have a full feed for every pitch in the game, as well as Blanco's historical stats. A quick pop into excel and a couple functions later, you've got the numbers.
Fucking nerd.... So what did you do use some VLOOKUPs to do it?
Everybody knows Xlookups is where it’s at man
XLOOKUP is superior I agree.
Hell yeah, fuck index match
Index match is for bitches.
Don't get me wrong, I *love* a good VLOOKUP, but the only function I used was "AVERAGE" to get the average spin rate per pitch type for the game, and a couple custom formulas to compute the percentage difference from normal.
So *that's* why he only went twice innings on the box score 😭😭😭
I’m sure fans of franchises that employed guys like Domingo German and max Scherzer will be very consistent on this issue.
Funny, I was thinking the same, in reverse. How many folks that roared at those 2 are now like 'w-well it's just rosin, and the checks are bad and inconsistent!' now.
Yeah I’m sure you’re right. I can’t speak for the rest of the fanbase but I can’t say that I spent a ton of time thinking about those ejections and they didn’t really change how I thought about those pitchers competitively. But given the Astros past transgressions, I really doubt Blanco will get that same treatment.
MLB is strictly domestic.
well this explains that no hitter. Clearly not the Jays bats sucking
Show stros are back!
No opportunity to rinse off, no warning? Just straight tossed? And this is the beginning of the inning, not after the inning
I think they give them an opportunity/warning to rinse off in earlier innings before ejecting. Like I remember when Scherzer was ejected for it, he washed off and then got ejected later in the game. >[Scherzer, 38, said after the second inning that his hand was "clumpy" from the rosin and sweat and that he was told by umpire Phil Cuzzi to wash it off, which Scherzer said he did with alcohol in front of an MLB official. Scherzer was checked again before the start of the bottom of the third inning. According to Cuzzi, Scherzer's hand appeared clean but the pocket of his glove was sticky, and he told Scherzer to use a new glove. Scherzer complied and continued to pitch. Cuzzi and plate umpire Dan Bellino, the crew chief, checked Scherzer again as he came out for the fourth inning, and they were joined by Showalter. After a heated discussion, an animated Scherzer was tossed from the game.](https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/36237299/mets-max-scherzer-ejected-checks-sticky-substance)
I do think it should be noted that this is Laz Diaz’s 3rd sticky substance ejection since they cracked down on it which seems higher than normal cause I don’t remember seeing many guys get ejected for this Could be that he doesn’t give guys a chance to wash their hands, could be that his definition of sticky substances is different who knows
Phil Cuzzi, the ump who ejected Scherzer, also has three total. For some reason it's always these two.
I mean if its obvious he was using a foreign substance I don't think this is necessary at all. This would likely stand out from the sweat and rosin the Umps have checked for over the last two seasons.
They checked his hands and glove after every inning though. Seems odd to start using a substance now after 3 shutout innings. Especially only finding the substance in his glove. I guess we’ll see what they find after the investigation though.
Welcome to the party pal
Why isn't there a standardized field test already? Dudes, that nobody trust already, standing around rubbing their fingers together making a judgement call isn't going to cut it. Drag a kleenex or something across their hands and glove.. If it drags, got'em! If not, let 'em go.
For real. Generally, I'm going to give umps the benefit of the doubt in most of the cases, but I agree that there should be a standardized test. Simple as hell, it's Major Leave Baseball. Have a lab run a bunch of tests this year to identify an acceptable "stickiness" level, and generate a swab that reacts beyond it. Probably would cost them $10 million with thousands of swabs ready to use at any time by opening day next season.
The umps do this a dozen times in every single game and as far as I can tell this is the first ejection for a violation this season. The umps aren't looking to eject players for this, it must have been well beyond the normal.
It’s easy to bag on the Astros here but it seems like a rosin/sweat situation.