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Back at the beginning of the season, MLB stated that it was going to start to crack down on pitchers that used foreign substances. It seemed to be a warning to all the pitchers that if they caught they would have to face the consequences. We have now completed two months into the season and have not heard a peep out of MLB. Except for when they tried to taint Bauer’s name…
MLB investigating baseballs early in season
At the beginning of the season, baseballs were being taken out of games by umpires to send them to the MLB. At first, it seemed like an attempt to scare off pitchers from using foreign substances. I’m assuming it was to show that MLB was going to start taking it seriously. Players noticed it but fans didn’t really notice it so it wasn’t really in the public eye yet.
It only became national news when MLB and some of its journalists stated that they were investigating Bauer’s baseballs. They also claims that they were noticeable sticky. Many people began to think that this was the start of MLB cracking down on foreign substances. Bauer was going to be the first suspension that MLB handed out. Bauer was going to be made the example of what will happen if you use foreign substances.
MLB’s big bluff and Bauer’s sacrifice
Of course, that never happened. In fact, nothing happened. It was all just to scare players or maybe get baseball into the spotlight for a second on ESPN. Bauer’s reputation was sacrificed by the MLB as a way to show what happened when you mess with the league. Bauer has been a huge critic about how MLB and its personnel operates. So MLB probably thought he was a good candidate to send out this message.
There are reports that MLB will not hand out any suspensions this year since the rules are too vague to enforce. But the point of collecting the balls is to see what substances are being used and which ones should be explicitly banned. So beginning 2022, there could be some new rules added to prevent pitchers from using certain substances.
