Pine Tar Incident
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In Major League Baseball lore, the Pine Tar Incident (also known as the Pine Tar Game) refers to a controversial incident that took place in an American League game played between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees on July 24, 1983.
Playing at New York's Yankee Stadium, the Royals were trailing 4-3 with two outs in the top of the ninth and U. L. Washington on first base. In the on deck circle, George Brett was heard remarking to a teammate, "Watch this baby fly" as he shook his bat. He then came to the plate and connected off Yankee reliever Rich "Goose" Gossage for a two-run home run and a 5-4 lead.
As Brett crossed the plate, New York manager Billy Martin approached home plate umpire Tim McClelland and requested that Brett's bat be examined. Earlier in the season, Martin and other members (most notably, third baseman Graig Nettles, who as a member of the Minnesota Twins, recalled a similar incident involving Thurman Munson) of the Yankees had noticed the amount of pine tar used by Brett, but Martin had chosen not to say anything until the home run. According to Nettles' autobiography, "Balls," Nettles claims that he actually informed Martin of the pine tar rule, as Nettles had previously undergone the same scrutiny with his own bat while with the Minnesota Twins.
With Brett watching from the dugout, McClelland and the rest of the umpiring crew inspected the bat. Measuring the bat against the width of home plate (which is 17 inches), they determined that the amount of pine tar on the bat's handle exceeded that allowed by Rule 1.10(b) of the Major League Baseball rule book, which read that "a bat may not be covered by such a substance more than 18 inches from the tip of the handle."
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[edit] "You're out!"
McClelland signaled that Brett's home run was nullified and the game over. An enraged Brett stormed out of the dugout to confront McClelland, and had to be physically restrained by Kansas City manager Dick Howser and his teammates. (As one commentator stated, "Brett has become the first player in history to hit a game-losing home run.") Despite the furious protests of Brett and Howser, McClelland's ruling stood. The Royals protested the game ("TAR WARS!" blared a New York Post headline), and their protest was upheld by American League president Lee MacPhail. MacPhail (who coincidentally had once been the Yankees' chief executive) ruled that the bat was not "altered to improve the distance factor", and that the rules only provided for removal of the bat from the game, not calling the batter out. Baseball writer Bill James concurred, saying that, unlike other sports, "in baseball, when you hit a double, that's a double."
[edit] Resolution
On August 18 (a scheduled off day for both teams), the game was resumed from the point of Brett's home run, with about 1,200 fans in attendance. Martin symbolically protested the continuation of the game by putting pitcher Ron Guidry in center field and first baseman Don Mattingly at second base. Mattingly, a lefty, became the majors' first southpaw second baseman since Oakland's Gonzalo Marques [1] a decade earlier; there has been one only lefty middle infielder in a big-league game since (Thad Bosley, in 1987).[2]
Before the first pitch to Hal McRae (who followed Brett in the lineup), Martin challenged Brett's home run on the grounds that Brett had not touched all the bases, and maintained that there was no way for the umpires (a different crew than the one who worked July 24) to dispute this. But umpire Davey Phillips was ready for Martin, producing an affidavit signed by the July 24 umpires stating that Brett had indeed touched all the bases. An irate Martin continued to argue with the umpires and was ejected from the game. Yankees reliever George Frazier struck McRae out to finally end the top of the ninth, twenty-five days after it had begun. Dan Quisenberry then got New York out 1-2-3 in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the Royals' 5-4 win.
Brett continued to use the bat which had caused the controversy until he broke it in a game against the Milwaukee Brewers in August 1983. He loaned it to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1987.
[edit] Media references
The country artist C.W. McCall dedicated the song Pine Tar Wars to the event, composing a lyric that featured a quite accurate telling of the relevant facts of the story. The lyric is strongly critical of Billy Martin (Baby Billy).
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Box score from the Pine Tar Game
- MLB.com: Baseball's Best - The Pine Tar Game
- Pine Tar Wars by C.W. McCall
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