So WTF is wrong with pine tar?

[Taverner]

Personally, if I were a batter, and the pitcher used more tar on his hands to control the ball - a ball which may reach 90 mph - I would have no qualms.

[AllegroRondo]

1. It causes more spin on the ball

and therefore more curve or break. it can be harder to control because the pitcher cant know exactly how much affect the substance will have on the ball.

the spitball was outlawed in 1920 after someone died from being hit by one. the extra spin makes the ball do some crazy stuff, and can actually be more dangerous to the batter.

[noonwitch]

2. It's only a controversy because FOX keeps bringing it up

And, of course, some Cards fans are being babies about it. If it was pine tar on Rogers' hand, the ump would have still been able to smell it after he washed his hand.

[Bake]

4. Yeah, us babies are up 2 - 1 !!

And we don't have to cheat to win!

Bake

[MrCoffee]

8. yeah, and Kenny Rogers doesn't have a history of doctoring balls

[Shakespeare]

10. Or beating up cameramen....

...or otherwise being a raging asshole.

[leftofthedial]

3. and you would have way more trouble hitting it

it exaggerates the spin the pitcher's hand imparts to the ball, making it move more.

Don't get too comfie in the box either, because the movement can be much more erratic as well.

And if some of the goo actually stays stuck to the ball, a skilled cheater pitcher can really use it to unfair advantage. It's the same as spitballs or scuffballs, which also are illegal.

[jobycom]

5. That's what John Kruk said, too. Tar improves the grip. It's not like a spitball

or vaseline or scuffing the ball. Those alter the airflow over a ball, causing it to behave erratically. Primer: A baseball curves or breaks because of the airflow affect over the spinning ball, the same way a airplane wing lifts a plane because of the air over the wings. Read up on Bernouli's equation. If you put spit or vaseline on the threads, or scuff the surface somewhere else, it creates different airflow affects, causing the ball to break in unexpected ways.

The pine tar isn't used like that. It only helps the pitcher to grip the ball better, so he can get his fingertips to spin the ball in ways that he couldn't otherwise. This generally only makes the ball spin faster, which makes the ball break more dramatically, but only in the direction you are expecting, so there isn't the same fear that the ball will go wild. But it gives the pitcher an edge, so it's banned.

The thing is, most MLB pitchers swear that 60% of pitchers use it, which means that probably all of them do. So it's not that big a deal to most of them, but it is technically cheating. The sportswriters are more upset than the players over this because Terrel Owens hasn't given them any good material lately.

[AllegroRondo]

9. Thats probably why LaRussa didnt press the issue

he didnt know if his own pitchers might be doing something also

[jobycom]

12. Or more likely, he did know.

Two things on La Russa. One, he only talked to the umpires after the media noticed the smudge and started talking about it, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was just warning Rogers that he had been spotted, more than raising a complaint. Even Palermo looked evasive talking about it. I think it's one of those things where no one cared, but they didn't want to see a controversy.

Two: back when he managed the A's, Dennis Eckersly was caught by the Rangers (Rogers may have been on that team, actually) doctoring the ball. La Russa got angry, not because he thought Eckersly was innocent, but because such a fuss was being made about it. He said something like, "Eckersly had a little trouble that night and doctored the ball a little, and now everyone is acting like he's a cheater." So, maybe that's just the way La Russa sees the game.

[riona]

6. Who knew?

I thought it was just a smelly ingredient in psoriasis shampoo.

[RebelOne]

7. It's good to use on horses' hooves to cure thrush. n/t

[bif]

11. That's what I always use when I get thrush.