The Yankees Gerritt Cole, when asked directly if he uses a sticky paste called Spider Tack while on the mound: "I don't [long pause] ... I don't know ... I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest."
Which means he's been using it and it accounts for at least some of his success.
I feel like I've been in a coma and I am just awakening from it now. I remember when a pitcher couldn't go anywhere near his mouth, or his hat, or his glove, without putting an umpire on alert. Now I see guys doing all sorts of things like this and nobody checks?
And they wonder why strikeouts are through the roof; why no-hitters are on a record pace; and why a third of some lineups have batters who cannot reach the Mendoza Line. And why people are getting bored with the game.
It makes me want to cry out "Who's in charge here and why aren't they doing their jobs?" but I already know the answers to both of those questions. The response to the second one is "incompetence and money."
The wavering course that this game is on — remember a couple of years ago, the concern was the proliferation of home runs because the ball itself was doctored? — and some of the bonehead changes they have made to dumb the game down and spice it up; the dashboard warning light is flashing.
https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/...ow-answer-that