Photo Credit: yankees.com
Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda should consider himself lucky. Pineda, who was caught last night with pine tar on his neck, has received a ten game suspension from the league. He will likely only have to miss one or two starts. During the second, Red Sox manager John Farrell approached umpires about a strange substance on the starter’s neck. After further inspection, the umpire tossed Pineda for the rest of the game
While, almost every pitcher uses the substance, it is technically not allowed in the league. Putting it on your neck in plain view is probably not a smart idea when trying to get an edge on your competition! After the game, Pineda commented on the situation saying, “I’ll learn from this mistake. It won’t happen again.”
It probably will happen again, he just won’t get caught this time. The rule is that no pitcher can have any type of foreign substance on them or in their glove to give them an unfair advantage. Pineda claims he used the pine tar because it was a cold night and he could not get a good grip on the ball. Pineda is not the first pitcher to pitch on a cold night and he is also not the first pitcher to use pine tar. This suspension should really just be for being too blatantly obvious about your cheating.
