By Mike Rifkin
The offense is down across the board in MLB. One thing that everybody knows is that before the season, baseball altered the ball. On Monday, June 21st, MLB announced pitchers who put a substance on the baseball would be immediately ejected from the game and suspended for ten games. Is cheating wrong?
Cheating is wrong, but Commissioner Manfred is playing a dangerous game. Last Monday, Tampa Bay Rays ace Tyler Glasnow left his start, which came to be known as a partial tear of his UCL and a flexor tendon strain. Glasnow admitted on
Tuesday that the only thing he used was sunscreen. He stopped two starts ago and felt pain in his arm afterward. In one of those starts, he struck out 11 players. Glasnow also said he had to change the way he gripped his pitches. He said he was digging pitches deeper into his hand for the grip. Yankees ace Gerrit Cole said after his last start that it was difficult to grip the ball as well. Cole also wanted MLB to work with the PA. Cole said, “we are aligned with the commissioner’s office on this. Please, talk to us, please work with us. But we’ve been living in a gray area for so long.
I would hate to see players getting hurt. I would hate to see balls flying at people’s heads.” We have seen guys get in the head too often recently; guys like Bryce Harper and Kevin Pillar were hit in the face by pitches.There is an old baseball saying that good pitching will beat good hitting, and I believe that to be true. I think the offense is down for numerous reasons, but the biggest is that teams today live and die via the home run. Met’s first baseman Pete Alonso thinks baseball manipulates the ball depending on who is a free agent that offseason. He went on to say that in the on-deck circle, they have pine tar rags, pine tar sticks, etc.… and if pitchers need help gripping the ball, he wouldn’t care. Rob Manfred is putting baseball in a tough spot.
Yes, players shouldn’t cheat but now, because he waited until June to do something about it is even worse. The pitchers are getting hurt because they have to ramp up their innings after last season’s 60 games condensed schedule coming into an entire 162 game season. But the worst part is that Baseball’s CBA (collective bargaining agreement) is up after this season. And after the issues of negotiating the 60 game schedule last season, the Player’s Association is not going to be happy with these new rules.
Players want to know what is going on, and Manfred is just sending memos to teams. Instead of saying that the ball’s changing might have some responsibility as to why offensive numbers are down, Manfred is blaming something players have done for generations. A strike would be bad for all involved, the players, owners, and especially the fans. The CBA negotiations will be interesting, but if baseball goes on strike and there is no next season, the only person to blame is Rob Manfred.
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