In this afternoon’s game between the St. Louis Cardinals and the Chicago White Sox, one of major league baseball’s best-known umpires, Joe West, called on the pitcher to Cards, Giovanny Gallegos, to change hats.
The reason for the change: West saw an unknown substance on the brim of the cap. In this case, Gallegos wasn’t kicked out of the game, he just had to change it.
Team manager Mike Shildt came out of the dugout to chat with the official, resulting in an expulsion.
After the meeting, Shildt said he believes the resin on the cap is a baseball secret.
It’s baseball’s dirty little secret, and now is the wrong time to expose it. Want to punish pitchers who put rosin? Go for it. Find all the pitchers who make it in this league. Why not start with the guys who cheat on stuff that has a real impact on the game?
Mike Shildt
Joe West, who refereed his 5376th career game Monday night, disagreed.
All I asked him to do was change his hat. I don’t think he had a problem with it. He said it was sunscreen. When Mike got mad about it, I didn’t think he really knew what we were doing. I was just trying to keep the pitcher in the game.
Joe west
The official therefore had no intention of taking anyone out of the game, but he had no choice when the manager of Saint-Louis began to shout and curse.
He started cursing, screaming and just getting angry.
Joe west
The referee also said that regardless of whether he asked the pitcher to change his cap mid-game or not, the item would likely have been directed to the MLB offices for inspection.
It’s normal protocol for something like this. We told the league compliance officer to come into our locker room to retrieve the cap.
Joe west
It’s not every day that we see a situation like this, but both are right in their own way. If an official wants to crack down on illicit substances, he has to do it against everyone, but at the same time, are such substances really necessary for pitchers?
Why not ban all substances and only play baseball by relying on talent and effort… like in the good old days?
