What do you think? Tavarez's hat.

[neohemp]

Kind of curious what other people think.

[bagsangels]

i think its kind of funny. I dont think its a big deal but funny how its all over sportscenter.

[neohemp]

Yeah that's what I mean.. I mean I'm a die-hard lifetime Cardinals fan, and I'm not condoning it but 10 days? And it's done so much. I guess the reason it's so blown up is because of how well they're doing.

[andjbock]

Julian Tavarez? What does he do?

[neohemp]

He's the little puerto rican bat boy.

[andjbock]

Originally Posted by neohemp

He's the little puerto rican bat boy.

What does he do?

[ihatenames]

Maybe the extra time on the suspension was due to putting his arm around the umpire. Thats the only thing i can think of why the suspension was so long. It should have been 6 or 7 games which is i believe the standard for such actions.

[dsvitak]

The hat was awful looking....VERY dirty and roughed up.

Sure looks like he was guilty.

On a related note, Cards pitcher Steve Kline, who popularized the dirty hat, has now given them up for the year.

You gotta wonder how Tavarez and Kline were having career years...

[sixto]

I think back to my days growing up, as a young impressionable boy watching the ballplayers on the field, and god how I wanted to have a really cool, really shiny batting helmet like they had.

I have personally been grumbling about the dirty caps in baseball for a few years now, I guess since Jim Thome joined the Phillies. In my opinion, it should not be up to the players whether the helmets are clean - clean helmets says "professional." Dirty helmets say "I found this lying around."

Oddly enough, I don't care so much about the hats. I think that a player should be required to be in uniform, and I think probably a disgusting hat is borderline in the spirit of that. But it's the batting helmets that get me.

[neohemp]

Yeah it's funny though how Gaylord Perry is regarded as one of the best pitchers ever and he had everything from razor blades to chainsaws in his back pocket. As for the career year comment, what about all the other pitchers? :P And also about the umpire comment -- why would putting your arm around someone be bad? Is this umpire homophobic? Hehe. Although I think Kline's career year would have had to have been his first year in STL, but that's just my opinion.. and '99 for Tavarez.. but another opinion..

[ihatenames]

Originally Posted by neohemp

Yeah it's funny though how Gaylord Perry is regarded as one of the best pitchers ever and he had everything from razor blades to chainsaws in his back pocket. As for the career year comment, what about all the other pitchers? :P And also about the umpire comment -- why would putting your arm around someone be bad? Is this umpire homophobic? Hehe. Although I think Kline's career year would have had to have been his first year in STL, but that's just my opinion.. and '99 for Tavarez.. but another opinion..

I don't have a problem with any of ball stuff really. Its a part of the game. If you can get away with it all the power to you. And putting your arm around the umpire is bad because you're showing him up. And technically you're not even supposed to touch the umpire.

[sebastian0622]

Tavarez broke a rule. He was warned. He had to change hats. He broke the rule again. He got suspended. I think the process went well and the umpires and MLB handled it correctly. And Tavarez hasn't handled it poorly either. So let's just hope he can learn his lesson and play within the rules, regardless of how you feel it impacts his performance. It's still a rule.

[Long_Long_Name]

<--- Probably the only Julian Tavarez fan in the world.

I'm fond of him since Baseball 94 days, where he'd be my #2 starter (after Rueter) and pitched my only perfect game.

[andymac]

Originally Posted by dsvitak

You gotta wonder how Tavarez and Kline were having career years...

I'm sure this has nothing to do with the fact they pitch in front of the best defense in baseball or that they havn't been over-extended or over-used at any point this season (thanks to solid starting pitching).

[UngratefulDead]

To be fair, before this whole hat deal, I hadn't heard about any batters complaining about unusual movement, etc. on pitches from either of these guys...

[andymac]

This was actually the 3rd time this season that Tavarez's hat has been looked at, basically because he is constantly touching his hat in the exact same place which understandably makes hitter's suspicious. Both previous times the hat was examined and determined to have no foreign substances. Tavarez got a new hat and everything was fine.

[UngratefulDead]

Originally Posted by andymac

This was actually the 3rd time this season that Tavarez's hat has been looked at, basically because he is constantly touching his hat in the exact same place which understandably makes hitter's suspicious. Both previous times the hat was examined and determined to have no foreign substances. Tavarez got a new hat and everything was fine.

Hmmmm... I hadn't heard that. Were the hitters suspicious solely of the hat, or were they complaining of the movement on his pitches?

[andymac]

I never heard of any complaining about movement in the first two incidents. LaRussa chalked it up to gamesmanship, in the 2nd instance he had the umpire check the bat of the next hitter that came up.

[UngratefulDead]

Originally Posted by andymac

I never heard of any complaining about movement in the first two incidents. LaRussa chalked it up to gamesmanship, in the 2nd instance he had the umpire check the bat of the next hitter that came up.

He had them check the bats? Gotta love that, classy, but still lets the other guy know what you mean. Much better than just beaning the batter..

[andymac]

Yea, I thought it was a classic move. It was basically just acknowledging what the other team was trying to do and showing them that he could play the same game.