Trevor Bauer & foreign substances

[Teenwolf]

I found this video about Bauer's history with foreign substances really compelling. Sure seems like Bauer is using a foreign substance specifically manufactured to help his pitching, which he only decided to use full time in the 2020 shortened season, coincidentally his free agent platform year.

You can see dramatic increases in spin rate from one inning to the next in a game that he warned people he could do exactly that if using a foreign substance. It also seems like many many pitchers are consistently using substances when looking through the evidence.

Also, I had never seen the clip of Phil Niekro tossing the sandpaper, but its clear these things have gone on a long time. Just seems more widespread than I thought it was.

[chancellor]

The Niekro clip is legendary. Don Sutton, in the same-ish era, was also noted for using a bunch of unholy combinations of fluids to doctor baseballs. I was at the Brewer game where he was called out - the umpire took his glove and found a note in it. We could see the umpire laughing, but no idea why, and Sutton stayed in the game. According to a number of sources, including Bob Uecker, the note read:

"It's not here. But you're close."

[Teenwolf]

The Niekro clip is legendary. Don Sutton, in the same-ish era, was also noted for using a bunch of unholy combinations of fluids to doctor baseballs. I was at the Brewer game where he was called out - the umpire took his glove and found a note in it. We could see the umpire laughing, but no idea why, and Sutton stayed in the game. According to a number of sources, including Bob Uecker, the note read:

"It's not here. But you're close."

Thats a great story, thanks for sharing.

Cheating in baseball just gets more sophisticated, it seems.

[Moonlight J]

the bong residue story....LOL. Totally forgot about that one & pretty much knowing exactly who it was.

[nullnor]

it's an arms race. baseballs being more tightly made for more HR's vs pitchers adapting. even cheating has rules. cheating is acceptable if it's done old school. stealing signs when your catcher (Mauer) is on 2B. but it's not acceptable using technology like cameras in CF. anything is better than steroids. why does everyone look at baseballs so closely before getting a new baseball.

I noticed in the video Pedro flipping Don Zimmer. what was the spin rate on Don's head. heh. the Gerbil is still Red Sox royalty.

[Sour Masher]

Thats a great story, thanks for sharing.

Cheating in baseball just gets more sophisticated, it seems.

Yeah, that is hilarious. I hadn't heard it before.