The recent incident involving Joel Peralta reminded me of something that happened two years ago when I was working a 16u tournament...played under HS rules.
At pregame conference before a 9:30PM game, coach tells me all his pitchers wear helmets. (a kid in their town was seriously injured the previous year, and their entire organization mandates it). He wanted to bring it to my attention before the game started, as it had "been a bone of contention" with some opponents and umpires. I told him I was well aware of the rules, and that the helmet was fine, as long as it wasn't reflective or putting off a glare. The game went on without any difficulties.
The following afternoon, however, the conditions were much differant. The sky was clear, and the helmet was giving off three or four distinct flahes of light during the pitcher's delivery. I noticed it during his warmups, and told the coach he'd have to do something to eliminate the reflection. He whined for a minute or two, then they went to work doctoring up the helmet with mud. It looked like hell, but killed the reflection. About the third inning (I don't know if some of the stuff had worn off, or if the angle of the sun had changed) but the glare was back, especially when he turned his head just before delivery. We stopped the game for a few minutes, and told them they must do more to eliminate the problem....which they did.
Several pitched into this inning, a foul ball went to the screen then rolled back near my feet. I gave the catcher another ball, and took a quick look at the ball (just making sure it hadn't been cut or damaged when it hit the screen.) I couldn't help but notice a sticky spot just next to one of the seams. I stuck that ball deep into my bag. I began paying closer attention, and noticed that the pitcher was 'adjusting' his helmet after nearly every pitch. After a foul had gone out of play, I put a brand new ball into play. Pitcher rubbed it up a bit, adjusted his helmet and got on the rubber.
I called time, went to the mound and asked for the ball. There was a fingerprint sized dab of something sticky, right in the same spot where it had been on the other ball. I asked him what it was, he shrugged his shoulders. I asked his manager to come out and join us, as well as my partner. I checked the kid's helmet, and found it had been smeared with pine tar.
I ejected both the pitcher and the manager, gave the helmet and both baseballs to the tournament director.
Imigine this...when the next pitched came in, he had a differant helmet...it was clean as a whistle, and had a natural dull black finish.
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