On Saturday, Expos pitcher Zach Day was ejected from the Expos/Rockies game for having an illegal substance on his person.
Of course, there's more to this than that, or I wouldn't be writing this!
He had a blister, and used super-glue to hold it together.
Now why would that be cause for ejection? Even the umpires said they didn't really want to do it, but were forced to by a literal reading of rule 8.02, which has to do with illegal substances.
I read over that rule, and surprisingly, a literal reading gives the umpires pretty wide discretion in deciding what's illegal, what isn't, and what the penalty should be. They went overboard here. There's no reason someone shouldn't be able to cover a blister with whatever if he wants to keep pitching. The Expos won the game anyway.
Someone in the commissioner's office ought to set the record straight on this one. When they're not too busy trying to move the Expos franchise.
Of course, there's more to this than that, or I wouldn't be writing this!
He had a blister, and used super-glue to hold it together.
Now why would that be cause for ejection? Even the umpires said they didn't really want to do it, but were forced to by a literal reading of rule 8.02, which has to do with illegal substances.
I read over that rule, and surprisingly, a literal reading gives the umpires pretty wide discretion in deciding what's illegal, what isn't, and what the penalty should be. They went overboard here. There's no reason someone shouldn't be able to cover a blister with whatever if he wants to keep pitching. The Expos won the game anyway.
Someone in the commissioner's office ought to set the record straight on this one. When they're not too busy trying to move the Expos franchise.