Written by Major League Baseball does a great job of getting themselves in sticky situations. Unfortunately, the latest one is really sticky. Literally.
Until a couple of weeks ago, I had never heard of Spider Tack. I’m guessing neither did you. You can buy a tub of the stuff on Amazon for about forty bucks. Developed by a scientist who also happens to be a bodybuilder to help grip large stones, it has become a favorite substance for pitchers to increase the spin rate of a four-seam fastball or a slider.
This practice has been going on for some time. The owners of the Spider Tack company started noticing a while ago that major league teams were buying large quantities of the stuff and having it shipped directly to their stadiums. Meanwhile, statistics-obsessed baseball fans were becoming enamored with pitchers who could use high spin rates to strike out batters on fastballs high in the strike zone. At the same time, batters were neutralizing their impact by maximizing things like exit velocity and launch angle to “barrel the ball” and break records for home runs.
Somehow, the home runs have slowed down this season, and offensive numbers around the league have plummeted. The pitchers appeared to be having an advantage. So, of course, people started assuming that they must be cheating. Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer have been under fire from fans and the media. But were they cheating? Like Cole answered when a member of the press asked him if he had ever used Spider Tack, my answer would be, “I don’t know how to answer that.”
Just like batters stealing signs, pitchers have been doctoring baseballs for as long as anyone can remember. Rules have been in place for both. But, the league only steps in to enforce them when they have to like they did when the Astros took sign-stealing too far. The message to the teams and players is cloudy at best. They appear to be saying it is OK to bend the rules but don’t go too far and get caught. And, only do it when it is convenient.
Once again, MLB is demonstrating it hasn’t learned its lesson from the steroid era. Fans like seeing spectacular feats by players like 450-foot home runs and 100 mile-per-hour fastballs. They generate interest in the game, and fan interest equates to profits for the league and its owners. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred is also obsessed with reducing the length of games. Too much time spent enforcing rules could drive up that metric, which continues to go up each year despite several rule changes intended to reduce it.
The Astros trash can banging sign-stealing incident began with a poorly enacted attempt by baseball to speed up games. Fearing that teams would take too much time deciding whether to challenge plays after they began its instant replay policy, they installed live TV monitors next to each dugout.
There are a lot of reasons games take too long. Thursday night, the Red Sox scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth inning of their game with the Astros. Unfortunately, they only had two hits, and it seemed like the inning lasted forever. The Astros dropped two fly balls in a swirling wind. To make matters worse, a half-naked guy ran out onto the field in yet another incident of bad fan behavior we have seen as stadiums are opening up.
The root issue of why that inning took so long was that Astros pitcher Zack Greinke had to leave the game after three innings because he was getting battered by the Red Sox hitters and the Astros had to rely on their poor bullpen to get them through the remainder of the game. Insert a spin rate conspiracy here or, as I prefer, blame the umpire. It was evident to anyone watching on TV that Greinke was getting squeezed. So was Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez. Both pitchers had to throw pitches over the middle of the plate. And, since they are two of the best offenses in the league, the result was a 12-8 game that lasted nearly four hours. It is time to implement an automated strike zone. Unless, of course, you want the strike zone to be flexible to manipulate the balance of hitting and pitching.
There are many things the league could do to make the games end at a decent time. They could put a timer between pitches. How about they make commercials shorter? I love when the Astros are playing on the east coast. Even Thursday’s debacle ended before my bedtime. Six o’clock starts are great, so how about doing that for home games?
As the world is evolving, so should the rules of baseball. Maybe they need to get rid of a few rules and make it more simple to understand. Can anyone explain what a balk is or why they call the infield fly rule on a popup to center field? What is certain is that technology will continue to advance. If they ban Spider Tack, something better will come along. Advanced analytics will get more advanced, and transparency will continue to increase. After a clunky implementation, instant replay has improved the game. The images will get better, and there will be more camera angles.
We all watch the game through a lens adjusted by our values and biases. I highly value transparency and consistency, so I’m all for replay and automated strike zones. Get the calls right, and let the chips fall as they may. Other fans have other values and see things differently. Maybe they value tradition and would rather keep new technologies out of the game. Most fans primarily care about what benefits their team. The league will never please everyone. Their efforts to do so make them look reactive and weak.
Commissioner Manfred has a decision to make. Does he want to prioritize the integrity of the game, or does he want to continue to micromanage the rules in order to maximize fan interest? I bet you a tub of Spider Tack that Manfred will choose the latter. I wish he would just come out and say it.