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All credit to Joe Posnanski:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/columnists/joe_posnanski/6556669.htm
The bat is in Cincinnati now. The bat has had some kind of life. It homered in Toronto. It went four for four in Detroit. It was booed in New York. The bat finally cracked in Milwaukee, where many have cracked, and like most broken ballplayers, it spent early retirement at a restaurant in California.
That's when life changed. The bat went to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Pine Tar Bat has been all over America. It was featured at the Field Museum in Chicago and the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Soon it will go to St. Petersburg, Fla., and get some sun, and then to Washington, where it may meet another president. There is talk of the bat going to Europe sometime.
Was it a good bat? Not really. The bat played only 17 games. It hit only .273. It hit only two home runs, one off someone named Dave Geisel. You may have heard something about the other one.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the strangest 10-minute game in baseball history. It happened in New York. It had to happen in New York. And no matter what happens when the Royals play at Yankee Stadium tonight, it won't be as crazy as it was that day in 1983 when an umpire pulled out a notarized statement from other umpires, when kids sued their own team, when George Brett ate lobster in Newark and when the Pine Tar Bat was wrapped in sanitary hose and shoved in a garbage bag so that the countless reporters would just leave it alone.
III
You know the story. On July 24, 1983, Brett hit a two-run, two-out home run in the ninth off New York's Goose Gossage. The pitch was thrown head-high at about 372 mph, and Brett mashed it to right field, and he went to the dugout feeling pretty good about himself.
He was laughing when Yankees manager Billy Martin came out to say the bat was illegal.
The rule was that you could not have pine tar applied more than 18 inches from the end of the bat. It was a rule from ancient times, something to prevent baseballs from getting all tarred up. Graig Nettles, Brett's archenemy, was the first one to notice that Brett's bat had too much pine tar. And Martin waited for the right moment.
Umpire Tim McClelland ruled that the bat did have too much pine tar, and he disallowed the home run and called Brett out. And, of course, Brett came running out of the dugout like a madman and went after the umpire, one of the most famous video clips in baseball history.
"If they want to suspend me, they can," Brett told reporters. "If they do, I'll retire."
Four days later, American League president Lee MacPhail, for the only time in his tenure, overruled the umpires. He said that while Brett did have too much pine tar on his bat, games are supposed to be decided on the field and not by obscure rules. He said the game had to be picked up with two outs in the ninth inning and the Royals up 5-4. The rest of the game was scheduled for Aug. 18.
"Lee might want to move to Kansas City," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said. "It might not be safe for him in New York."
III
Three weeks later, on the day of the game, the Royals took off from Kansas City at 11 a.m., and they had absolutely no idea where they were going to land. The game in New York was very much in doubt. Three kids (two of them just 5 and 6 years old) were suing the Yankees for the right to use their original ticket stub to see the last four outs of the game. The Yankees were charging $1 and $2.50 admission.
And the Yankees, who did not want the game to happen in the first place, went to court. Mostly, they seemed to agree with the kids suing them. Famed lawyer Roy Cohn, wearing lavender and puce according to The New York Times, ranted and railed about the grave dangers of playing this game. He implied there might be a riot.
Justice Joseph P. Sullivan made his verdict: "Play ball."
Not to spoil the ending, but the 1,245 people who showed up did not riot.
Anyway, the Royals plane landed in Newark. They waited in the plane until the verdict was announced. And then most of them headed to the ballpark. Brett, who had of course been tossed out of the game, headed for The Spanish Tavern with Larry Ameche, son of actor Don Ameche. The pine-tar bat was wrapped up and hidden away.
What a bizarre scene. Martin, in protest, put pitcher Ron Guidry in center field and Don Mattingly, a lefty, at second base. (Mattingly had another distinction: He was trying for baseball's first-ever retroactive 25-game hitting streak. He had hit safely in nine straight before the Pine Tar Game and 15 more afterward. He flied out.)
It was crazy. The Yankees were short-handed because Jerry Mumphrey, who was in the lineup on July 24, had been traded to Houston and would not come back. Gossage, who was on the mound, offered to throw a "protest pool party," where his teammates could forfeit a game and play some water volleyball. The little game was on television in Kansas City and New York.
The moment of the day, and one of the great moments ever, happened when the game finally began. George Frazier, the Yankees relief pitcher, threw the ball to first base, an appeal. The Yankees were claiming that Brett missed first base. After that, Frazier threw to second base, claiming that Brett missed that bag, too. The umpire called safe both times.
Martin rushed out of the dugout. This was a different umpiring crew from the one July 24. How could they possibly know that Brett touched all the bases? It was brilliant. Martin ranted and raved, as only Martin could rant and rave. He had them.
Only then, home-plate umpire Dave Phillips pulled out a piece of a paper. It was a notarized affidavit from the first umpiring crew. It said that Brett and U.L. Washington touched all the bases. The only thing the affidavit did not do was stick its tongue out at Martin.
"Whoever came up with that," Royals closer Dan Quisenberry would say, "should be the next commissioner of baseball. That was brilliant."
Martin got himself tossed out of the game, he offered the final protest to the most protested game in baseball history, and then the game went on. Kansas City's Hal McRae struck out and ended a half inning that had lasted about 597 hours.
After that, Quiz came in. He threw 10 pitches and forced Mattingly to fly to center, Roy Smalley to fly to left and Oscar Gamble to ground out to second base. That was it. When it ended, Martin sat closed up in his office and watched a "Barney Miller" rerun. He would not come out. The Royals flew to Baltimore for a doubleheader the next day. They would lose both. They never quite recovered that year. That was the only full season between 1975 and 1985 that the Royals finished below .500.
And the bat? Well, the first report is it was given to famed New York baseball collector Barry Halper. But, soon enough, Brett had it in his house. He would bring it out to show people sometimes. Then, he put it up in his restaurant in California during the winter and lent it to the Baseball Hall of Fame in the summer. Then, finally, he just gave it to the Hall of Fame.
And now it's touring America as part of the "Baseball As America" exhibit. It is there in Cincinnati with the jersey that midget Eddie Gaedel wore in his one at-bat (he walked). It is there with the bat Pete Rose used to extend his hitting streak to 44 games. It is there with the letter Franklin Roosevelt wrote urging baseball to keep going during World War II. The bat is a part of history now.
III
One final story. In a minor-league game in Augusta, Ga., a few years ago, Angel Santos hit a home run. The opposing manager rushed out and said there was too much pine tar on the bat. The umpire looked at the bat and nodded. But Santos did not rush out of the dugout. There were no lawsuits or threats or affidavits. The rule had changed. The home run stood.
What happened is this: The next time up, the umpire told Santos, "Please wipe off some of that pine tar." And Santos did.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/sports/columnists/joe_posnanski/6556669.htm
The bat is in Cincinnati now. The bat has had some kind of life. It homered in Toronto. It went four for four in Detroit. It was booed in New York. The bat finally cracked in Milwaukee, where many have cracked, and like most broken ballplayers, it spent early retirement at a restaurant in California.
That's when life changed. The bat went to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Pine Tar Bat has been all over America. It was featured at the Field Museum in Chicago and the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles. Soon it will go to St. Petersburg, Fla., and get some sun, and then to Washington, where it may meet another president. There is talk of the bat going to Europe sometime.
Was it a good bat? Not really. The bat played only 17 games. It hit only .273. It hit only two home runs, one off someone named Dave Geisel. You may have heard something about the other one.
Today marks the 20th anniversary of the strangest 10-minute game in baseball history. It happened in New York. It had to happen in New York. And no matter what happens when the Royals play at Yankee Stadium tonight, it won't be as crazy as it was that day in 1983 when an umpire pulled out a notarized statement from other umpires, when kids sued their own team, when George Brett ate lobster in Newark and when the Pine Tar Bat was wrapped in sanitary hose and shoved in a garbage bag so that the countless reporters would just leave it alone.
III
You know the story. On July 24, 1983, Brett hit a two-run, two-out home run in the ninth off New York's Goose Gossage. The pitch was thrown head-high at about 372 mph, and Brett mashed it to right field, and he went to the dugout feeling pretty good about himself.
He was laughing when Yankees manager Billy Martin came out to say the bat was illegal.
The rule was that you could not have pine tar applied more than 18 inches from the end of the bat. It was a rule from ancient times, something to prevent baseballs from getting all tarred up. Graig Nettles, Brett's archenemy, was the first one to notice that Brett's bat had too much pine tar. And Martin waited for the right moment.
Umpire Tim McClelland ruled that the bat did have too much pine tar, and he disallowed the home run and called Brett out. And, of course, Brett came running out of the dugout like a madman and went after the umpire, one of the most famous video clips in baseball history.
"If they want to suspend me, they can," Brett told reporters. "If they do, I'll retire."
Four days later, American League president Lee MacPhail, for the only time in his tenure, overruled the umpires. He said that while Brett did have too much pine tar on his bat, games are supposed to be decided on the field and not by obscure rules. He said the game had to be picked up with two outs in the ninth inning and the Royals up 5-4. The rest of the game was scheduled for Aug. 18.
"Lee might want to move to Kansas City," Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said. "It might not be safe for him in New York."
III
Three weeks later, on the day of the game, the Royals took off from Kansas City at 11 a.m., and they had absolutely no idea where they were going to land. The game in New York was very much in doubt. Three kids (two of them just 5 and 6 years old) were suing the Yankees for the right to use their original ticket stub to see the last four outs of the game. The Yankees were charging $1 and $2.50 admission.
And the Yankees, who did not want the game to happen in the first place, went to court. Mostly, they seemed to agree with the kids suing them. Famed lawyer Roy Cohn, wearing lavender and puce according to The New York Times, ranted and railed about the grave dangers of playing this game. He implied there might be a riot.
Justice Joseph P. Sullivan made his verdict: "Play ball."
Not to spoil the ending, but the 1,245 people who showed up did not riot.
Anyway, the Royals plane landed in Newark. They waited in the plane until the verdict was announced. And then most of them headed to the ballpark. Brett, who had of course been tossed out of the game, headed for The Spanish Tavern with Larry Ameche, son of actor Don Ameche. The pine-tar bat was wrapped up and hidden away.
What a bizarre scene. Martin, in protest, put pitcher Ron Guidry in center field and Don Mattingly, a lefty, at second base. (Mattingly had another distinction: He was trying for baseball's first-ever retroactive 25-game hitting streak. He had hit safely in nine straight before the Pine Tar Game and 15 more afterward. He flied out.)
It was crazy. The Yankees were short-handed because Jerry Mumphrey, who was in the lineup on July 24, had been traded to Houston and would not come back. Gossage, who was on the mound, offered to throw a "protest pool party," where his teammates could forfeit a game and play some water volleyball. The little game was on television in Kansas City and New York.
The moment of the day, and one of the great moments ever, happened when the game finally began. George Frazier, the Yankees relief pitcher, threw the ball to first base, an appeal. The Yankees were claiming that Brett missed first base. After that, Frazier threw to second base, claiming that Brett missed that bag, too. The umpire called safe both times.
Martin rushed out of the dugout. This was a different umpiring crew from the one July 24. How could they possibly know that Brett touched all the bases? It was brilliant. Martin ranted and raved, as only Martin could rant and rave. He had them.
Only then, home-plate umpire Dave Phillips pulled out a piece of a paper. It was a notarized affidavit from the first umpiring crew. It said that Brett and U.L. Washington touched all the bases. The only thing the affidavit did not do was stick its tongue out at Martin.
"Whoever came up with that," Royals closer Dan Quisenberry would say, "should be the next commissioner of baseball. That was brilliant."
Martin got himself tossed out of the game, he offered the final protest to the most protested game in baseball history, and then the game went on. Kansas City's Hal McRae struck out and ended a half inning that had lasted about 597 hours.
After that, Quiz came in. He threw 10 pitches and forced Mattingly to fly to center, Roy Smalley to fly to left and Oscar Gamble to ground out to second base. That was it. When it ended, Martin sat closed up in his office and watched a "Barney Miller" rerun. He would not come out. The Royals flew to Baltimore for a doubleheader the next day. They would lose both. They never quite recovered that year. That was the only full season between 1975 and 1985 that the Royals finished below .500.
And the bat? Well, the first report is it was given to famed New York baseball collector Barry Halper. But, soon enough, Brett had it in his house. He would bring it out to show people sometimes. Then, he put it up in his restaurant in California during the winter and lent it to the Baseball Hall of Fame in the summer. Then, finally, he just gave it to the Hall of Fame.
And now it's touring America as part of the "Baseball As America" exhibit. It is there in Cincinnati with the jersey that midget Eddie Gaedel wore in his one at-bat (he walked). It is there with the bat Pete Rose used to extend his hitting streak to 44 games. It is there with the letter Franklin Roosevelt wrote urging baseball to keep going during World War II. The bat is a part of history now.
III
One final story. In a minor-league game in Augusta, Ga., a few years ago, Angel Santos hit a home run. The opposing manager rushed out and said there was too much pine tar on the bat. The umpire looked at the bat and nodded. But Santos did not rush out of the dugout. There were no lawsuits or threats or affidavits. The rule had changed. The home run stood.
What happened is this: The next time up, the umpire told Santos, "Please wipe off some of that pine tar." And Santos did.
) his ass.
