As the MLB apparently looks to crack down on pitchers applying foreign substances to baseballs, Tigers starter Casey Mize wasn’t happy about having to change gloves in the middle of his start Tuesday night against the Kansas City Royals.
“I thought it was pretty shitty, pretty shitty thing to do,” Mize said, according to Evan Petzold of the Detroit Free Press. “I assume everyone thinks that I was using sticky stuff, which I was not. I just thought the timing of it was pretty shitty, honestly.”
Mize said home plate umpire John Tumpane asked him to make the change between the first and second innings because his glove’s charcoal gray color was “too light.”
Tumpane’s request came hours after MLB said it’ll crack down on foreign substances being applied to baseballs starting June 21.
“The umpires need to get on the same page because I’ve made 12 starts (with the glove), and everybody was fine with it, or John Tumpane just needs to have some feel and let me pitch with the glove that the other team did not complain about,” Mize said.
“John’s a good umpire and a very nice guy, just have some feel for the situation. I hate that I’m in a position now where I assume everyone thinks I was using sticky. In reality, that was not the situation at all.”
TheScore.com
Do I think it’s good that the MLB is going to be taking a better approach to getting rid of foreign substances on baseballs? Yes, absolutely.
However, do I think in last night’s circumstance we had an umpire who was on some power trip? Yeah, I do especially considering this wasn’t an issue for Mize prior, which worries me about this new MLB approach with foreign substances.
Again, I like the idea of removing foreign substances from the game, especially if you’re not going to allow any players whatsoever to be able to take performance enhancers. But, what kind of over policing are we going to get from umpires who already in some cases like the make the games all about them?
