Matt Szczur Strikes Out, Reaches Base Safely Because Yadier Molina Can't Find The Baseball That's Stuck To His Chest
Welp. I ain’t ever seen anything like this before. I’ve watched more baseball games than I’d care to admit, and this is an absolute first for me. I heard about this clip before I actually saw it, and in my head, I pictured the baseball somehow getting caught in his chest protector or behind it or something, but yeaaaaah…that’s not how it went down.
Obviously there’s a substance on Yadier Molina’s chest protector, more than likely pine tar, that caused the ball to stick. Definitely not legal, but I’ve got no problem with it and I’m sure the other players don’t, either. Why? Because their own guys are probably doing the same shit. Hitters would tell you that they have no problem with pitchers using substances like pine tar to get a better grip. They’d rather have pitchers locating in the strike zone than letting a fastball fly up around their head by an accident.
Also, shout out to Molina for being real when asked by a nerd reporter if there was a substance on his chest protector.
This isn’t a big deal, by the way. Guys do this shit all the time, and as long as you’re not globbing it all over your body like Michael Pineda and blatantly using it in everyone’s face, then you’re fine. We’ve seen pitchers even use this shit called Bull Frog. It’s a sunscreen that basically acts as an adhesive for pitchers when you mix it with sweat, so you’ll see guys rub the back of their neck and then rub their forearm where the sunscreen is. Same idea. And that year that Pineda got suspended 10 games for his pine tar use, AJ Pierzynski came out and said that catchers use pine tar often, too. He’d stash his behind his shin guards and it’s just one of those don’t ask, don’t tell things about baseball. You know, like steroids in the 90’s, only nothing has to enter your ass to use pine tar.