Baseball’s Sticky Situation

Doctoring baseballs with ultra-tacky substances has pitchers dominating and some questioning the game’s integrity. Can cleaning up the balls liven up the sport?

Since the season began in April, Major League Baseball’s umpires and league officials have been collecting baseballs by the thousands. Balls from games are inspected, with the most suspicious specimens being sent to an independent laboratory for analysis. A forensic examination at that laboratory determined that a majority of the balls had some kind of illegal foreign substance — presumably applied through sleight of hand by a pitcher on the mound — with tests still being done to determine exactly what was placed on them. The purpose of the substance is fairly clear: To help pitchers make the baseball curve, dip and hop more than it normally would. The study of the balls is only part of a wider investigation, which has involved video, high-tech analysis of the rate of spin on pitches and witness accounts. It is the latest — and currently loudest — cheating scandal in a sport that seems to have a new one every few years.