This Week in Mets Quotes: Sticky Fingers

Your 2023 New York Mets: I swear on my kids’ lives.

“I swear on my kids’ lives. I’m not using anything else. This is sweat and rosin. Sweat and rosin.” -Max Scherzer [The Athletic]

...false start I guess, now let’s get to some quotes about actual baseball games...

“Your hand is too sticky.” -Umpire Phil Cuzzi [The Athletic]

...um, alright, moving on...

“Yes it is, because I used sweat and rosin.” -Max Scherzer [The Athletic]

...hold on...we have a little bit more about the level of stickiness...

“That’s when we realized the level of stickiness on his hand was much worse than it was even in the initial inspection that had taken place two innings prior. So following the proper protocols, Phil [Cuzzi] immediately recognized it. Phil then asked me to come in to verify that the hand was too sticky. Both Phil and I touched his hand. As far as stickiness, level of stickiness, this was the stickiest that it has been since I’ve been inspecting hands, which now goes back three seasons.” -Umpire Dan Bellino [The Athletic]

...alright, now let’s...oh, okay, there’s more...

“Compared to the first inning, the level of stickiness, it was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers were sticking to his hand. And whatever was on there remained on our fingers afterwards for a couple innings, where you could still feel that the fingers were sticking together. So it was far more than we had ever seen before on a pitcher in live action.” -Umpire Dan Bellino [The Athletic]

,,,fair enough, I guess, I don’t care, moving on to baseball...

“I don’t get how I get ejected when I’m in front of MLB officials doing exactly what you want and being deemed my hands too sticky when I’m using legal substance. I do not understand that.” -Max Scherzer [The Athletic]

...alright Max made his points, now let’s...

“I know how Max works. It’s rosin and it’s what the league provides. So if that’s the case, everybody’s gonna have a problem.” -Buck Showalter [The Athletic]

...can we...

“MLB standards and rules enforcement should mandate and require an objective verifiable standard. If you want to attack the integrity of the competition you need clear precise standards else you damage the game and its players. The Cuzzi on field spectrometer is not the answer. MLB needs to employ available scientific methods (not subjective) to create verifiable certainty of its rules.” -Scott Boras [The Athletic]

...get to actual...

“You can make rosin pretty sticky if you’re sweating enough … How do they know the difference between sticky rosin and sticky, sticky stuff?” -A.J. Pierzynski [The Athletic]

...oh COME ON, now Dan’s back...

“When we check these pitchers’ hands, we know what the rosin typically feels like on a pitcher’s hand, because everyone’s using the same rosin bag. So it’s really important to understand that when they claim it’s just rosin — because we check every pitcher every single game — we’re accustomed to what that rosin residue will be on a pitcher’s hand.” -Umpire Dan Bellino [The Athletic]

...fine, please stop talking so we get to...

“The fact that this went so much further, was indicative that there was something likely more than just rosin, something that was so sticky, that whatever it was, it was all over the palm, it was up on the inside of the fingers. The entire hand was stickier than anything that we had inspected before and most importantly, it was worse than it was in that second inning when he was told that he had to wash his hand.” -Umpire Dan Bellino [The Athletic]

...we’ll try again next week...

“We understand the repercussions of removing a pitcher from the game. We take that very seriously. And with the training that we’ve been given by Major League Baseball to check to make sure that it’s not a legal substance. This was clearly something that went too far over the line.” -Umpire Dan Bellino [The Athletic]