Plan B Forum

Pineda ejected for having pine tar on neck

Righty knows he 'made a mistake,' [yeah, he got caught]and Yanks expect he'll get suspended



BOSTON -- The Yankees expect that Michael Pineda will have to serve a suspension after the right-hander was ejected from Wednesday's start against the Red Sox at Fenway Park for pitching with pine tar smeared on the right side of his neck.

Official Rule 8.02 states: "The pitcher shall not apply a foreign substance of any kind to the ball." Pineda admitted that he applied pine tar to himself before the second inning, saying that he was having trouble gripping the ball on a cold evening and did not want to hit any batters.[So he did it purely out of consideration for others... ]

"I know I made a mistake," Pineda said. "I feel so sad today. It was a really cold night and in the first inning I [didn't] have a really good grip on the ball."[so naturally I cheated... ]

Pineda also appeared to have pine tar on his palm during an April 10 start against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, but Boston didn't complain that night because the substance disappeared the inning after Red Sox manager John Farrell was made aware of it.

This time, Farrell spotted the smudge on Pineda's neck quite clearly and brought the issue to the attention of home-plate umpire and crew chief Gerry Davis, interrupting a 1-2 count on Grady Sizemore with two outs in the second inning.

"I could see it from the dugout," Farrell said. "It was confirmed by a number of camera angles in the ballpark. And given the last time we faced him, I felt like it was a necessity to say something."

Davis went to the mound, first looking at Pineda's glove and his pitching hand. Davis instructed Pineda to turn around, then pointed and touched the spot on Pineda's neck before ejecting him from the game.

"John Farrell mentioned that he felt he had a foreign substance on his person, and [we] went out to check him and he did," Davis said.

Manager Joe Girardi and pitching coach Larry Rothschild had multiple discussions with Pineda after the April 10 outing, trying to make Pineda aware that pine tar use is illegal and that he would be risking discipline from the league by continuing to do so.

"We certainly are responsible," general manager Brian Cashman said. "There's certainly failure on our part as an organization as a whole that he took the field in the second inning with that on his neck. He's responsible for his actions, but we failed as an organization for somehow him being in that position."

Girardi said that Pineda's decision to apply the pine tar was unknown to the team, and that he used "poor judgment" on Wednesday. Rothschild said that Pineda might have believed that on a windy, 50-degree night, the ends would have justified the means.

"I'm not sure that he understood the implications,[The guy's been a pro player since 2006, in the majors since 2011, was just reminded about it less than 2 weeks ago, and he "didn't understand the implications?" Really? That's your story? What a complete crock] and I think it was more in his mind that he needed to grip the baseball," Rothschild said. "Whatever he had to do, I'm not sure if he thought there'd be an understanding of it, but it's one of those things where I'm not sure he understood what the penalties were -- even though I had told him what could happen. I think in his mind, he needed to grip the baseball."

In the future, Pineda said that he will "go out there and pitch my game. I won't use it anymore."

The thing is, everyone uses pine tar and some point. On a cold cold night, you really do need it to help grip the ball.

Gob wrote:They moan about "pine tar", but don't mind the catchers having a huge bucket on their hands?

Big RR wrote:I don't know; if the pine tar allows you to grip the ball more tightly/securely, you could get a lot more spin on the ball; that could easily translate into a bigger break on a curve ball or more back spin, and loft, on a fast ball. I think that's why it's not permitted under the rules and you can't put pine tar on or fingers or the ball. My guess is the bowling substances would also not be allowed.

8.02 The pitcher shall not—...

(b) Have on his person, or in his possession, any foreign substance. For such infraction of this section (b) the penalty shall be immediate ejection from the game. In addition, the pitcher shall be suspended automatically. In National Association Leagues, the automatic suspension shall be for 10 games.

Gob wrote:They moan about "pine tar", but don't mind the catchers having a huge bucket on their hands?