The ol' baseball saying - "If you ain't cheatin', you ain't tryin'"

Always thought that was a NASCAR saying.

It was VERY blatant. The Red Sox couldn't complain because they (reportedly) use the same stuff. they are just a little bit sneaky about it.

I asked my son (minor league pitcher) if he saw a lot of pitchers using "something" foreign during a game and his reply was... "you'd be amazed".  

Sometime, when we're chatting over a root beer, I'll tell you why the aging AAA pitcher whose locker adjoined my son's kept sandpaper, a hole punch, and Elmer's glue in one of his locker's cubbies...

I think that shiny stuff is referred to as "cubic dirtconia"

hole punch?

It must have been the Sox radio announcers that too issue with Pineida. On TV it was pointed out. But then they joked about it at least while I was watching. I watched the first inning, then skipped to the fourth and watched two more innings.

I had to chuckle at that article because it is spot on!

I just read the Boston Herald online. The articles mostly made jokes about the situation. A couple stated how can the writers covering the team complain if the Red Sox don't.

Along these lines: Are catchers required to hand the ball to the ump if the pitch hits the ground? I always thought they did it for the pitcher, but why would they?

And it's interesting to me how THAT necessitates a new baseball, but, say, a 6-3, doesn't.

The social media is making a big deal over this. The Red Sox had no problem with it since their pitchers do it. This is a non-story.

Yep. Funny how a hole punch could conceivably create a circle of sand paper that, in turn, could be glued to a finger for a bit of artful scuffing...hypothetically speaking, of course.

...and, in the event that an umpire were to discover such scuffing, the pitcher could suddenly develop a "hangnail" that would require an immediate finger to the mouth to remove said "hangnail." They say that Elmer's is non-toxic..and I doubt that, if ingested, a hole punch-sized piece of sandpaper would create much of a digestive issue.

Evidently, the practice hadn't harmed the aging pitcher.

(If this guy hadn't played for the Padres organization, he might have been referred to as the "Artful Dodger.")

An umpire once told Elston Howard to go to the dugout an adjust his jock. He was told when he returned don't have the ring on anymore. He had his own version of preparing the "cut" fastball.

Yes, the umpires ask for the ball.  

In the Boston paper today Shane Victorino said when he catches a fly and no one is on he intentionally tries to hit the infield dirt with a one hop throw. He's trying to scuff the ball for the pitcher.