CNBNews

I’m a pitcher myself, and those baseballs fresh out the box are usually slippery. I hate new baseballs and on all the teams I’ve played for, we would rub mud on the balls. I imagine every team does this to their box of game balls before the game.

The MLB rubs mud on the baseballs before every game. No ball gets the same treatment of mud on each ball. Some get less than others and by that fifth box, the mud is probably negligent.

Pitchers like the ball sticky, for movement and grip. In the brutal cold months for Northeast baseball players, the grips can get worse. Pitchers have to doctor up a baseball to be able to have more accuracy and control.

MLB pitchers have been called out for using foreign substances for a while now. Normally people don’t have a problem with it unless it’s a blatant use of the substance, aka the Pineda debacle.

Managers won’t call out a pitcher because their pitchers are doing the same thing.

You’ll see pitchers with pine tar on their hats or their wrists or somewhere else that they can hide it easily. It’s tough to hide this with the HD cameras zooming in once they see it.

I lick my fingers after every pitch and that’s illegal to do unless I rub my fingers on my pants first. My own saliva is considered an illegal substance. How ridiculous is that?

Pine tar is illegal along with anything else you can think of to make the ball stickier. The rosin bags are acceptable since they’re on every pitcher’s mound in the major leagues.

Think about it, hitters use pine tar to get a grip on the bat, but pitchers can’t use it to get a grip on the baseball. If a pitcher was to throw a fresh baseball without doctoring it in any way, I’m not sure where the ball would end up.

NFL QB’s get to use their own footballs, but visiting pitchers have to use the home team’s baseballs. And if the home team doesn’t rub the ball up well enough then the visiting pitcher is going to have to doctor it up.

A baseball in the rain is just about one of the hardest things to throw, the ball can slip out of your hand mid throw or go somewhere completely elsewhere. I don’t think a hitter would have a problem with a pitcher trying to get a better grip on the baseball.

The MLB can try to get a tackier baseball, but allowing pitchers to use a foreign substance is a better idea.