M.L.B. Says It Will Punish Ball Doctoring

The era of sticky baseballs and artificially high spin rates may be coming to an end. Major League Baseball placed pitchers on notice Tuesday when it announced new guidelines designed to enforce rules against placing prohibited foreign substances on baseballs, a practice that is believed to improve pitching performance.

Beginning June 21, a pitcher who is found to have a foreign substance on his person or who has applied it to a ball in play will be ejected from the game and suspended for 10 additional games. Repeat offenders will face an increasing scale of punishment, and team officials and employees can also be disciplined for failing to ensure compliance with the rules.

Umpires will conduct regular searches in games, M.L.B. said.

“After an extensive process of repeated warnings without effect, gathering information from current and former players and others across the sport, two months of comprehensive data collection, listening to our fans and thoughtful deliberation, I have determined that new enforcement of foreign substances is needed to level the playing field,” Rob Manfred, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, said in a statement.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/15/sports/baseball/mlb-doctoring-balls-substance.html