“Sticking” To It

By Mike Rifkin

The bottom of the  ninth inning of the Mets-Cubs game on Sunday was a roller coaster before it even started. Mets closer Edwin Diaz was ejected before throwing a pitch when the umpires determined his hands were too sticky. With the ejection Diaz is now suspended for 10 games barring an appeal. Diaz will now miss series against the Yankees, Astros, Nationals and a game against the Pirates. This comes at a really bad time for the Mets, who have won 15 of 21 games and now sit one game back of the third wild card spot. 

Diaz said after the game “ I think it’s the same. They always check me, they let me pitch. I will keep using the same thing because they didn’t find anything on my glove, hat and belt.” Diaz is the third Met to get ejected from a game over the last calendar year along with Drew Smith and Max Scherzer. Crew Chief Vic Carapazza said “ It definitely wasn’t rosin and sweat. We’ve checked 1,000’s of these. I know what the feeling is, it was very sticky.” 

My problem isn’t with the umpires, my problem is with MLB. There is no standard to how sticky someone’s hand is. The umpires are told to act on their own accord to figure out how sticky someone’s hand is, but there’s been a different double standard and that is when the umpires allow the pitcher to go wash their hands. Yes, Diaz can appeal this situation but he probably won’t win it and it still hurts the Mets. MLB banned the sticky substances to increase offense, well over the last year offense is down and they can’t blame the sticky stuff, so what’s the explanation? 

Here’s the thing: I don’t care what Diaz or Mendoza say, I don’t care what the umpires have to say as they’re just following what they’re told. I want to hear from the commissioner and have him address this because if the players are confused, if the umpires are confused then you know the fans are confused. Why are there different protocols, what is considered too sticky, is there a way we can have the stickiness measured? These are all valid questions for MLB and Rob Manfred to answer, but he hasn’t and what happens if this costs a team a playoff spot or worse a playoff game. Based on something arbitrary, it’s ridiculous if you’re going to have a rule in place that has a way it should be measured. At the end of the day this is a loss for the Players’ because it’s very hard for the suspension to get overturned. Hey we have a great summer of baseball ahead, but as usual we’re talking about a negative hitting MLB and they need to find a solution.