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New York Mets co-ace Max Scherzer is currently serving a 10-match suspension for using a banned grip enhancer during his most recent start against the Dodgers. During that start, Scherzer had repeated interactions with umpire Phil Cuzzi about the stickiness of his throwing hand, and Scherzer insisted over and over that it was nothing more than an allowable combination of resin and sweat on his hands.
After the game though crew chief Dan Bellino had this to say:
“This was the stickiest [a hand] has been since I inspect hands, which goes back three seasons. It was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers stuck to his hand.”
So what gives? If Scherzer only used sweat and rosin, how did such a sticky mixture come about? Cuzzi twice told Scherzer to wash his hands to remove or reduce the stickiness, and Scherzer says he did—using alcohol, which, again according to Scherzer, is a substance that “gets a little sticky for a while.” may be in rosin.” -ing.”
And that’s the real problem. Speaking of which, former major league pitcher and current analyst David Cone demonstrated Sunday night what happens when you combine the usual amalgam of sweat and resin with alcohol, as Scherzer did:
Suffice it to say that amounts to “tacky stuff”.
Conveniently, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred appeared at an Associated Press Sports Editors event and was asked about the Scherzer situation in particular and the topic of “sticky stuff” in general. This is what he said through our Adi Joseph:
“Players have been clearly told that combining rosin with any other substance is not allowed. There is a variety – sunscreen, alcohol, whatever. Rosin that’s out of the bag, that’s on the mound, you can get that out without alcohol get your hand. That’s a red herring. I want to commend the umpires who made multiple attempts to de-escalate this. … I don’t think there’s any confusion about combining things with rosin.”
On the one hand, Scherzer wasn’t exactly trying to hide his use of alcohol to wash his hands, as he referenced it several times during the post-match media scrum. On the other, possibly more nefarious side, Scherzer’s pleas on the field of “sweat and rosin” didn’t paint the full picture. As Cone’s science project and Manfred’s comments suggest, it’s the act of washing his hands with alcohol that made the routine controversial.
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