After watching the White Sox get clobbered by the D*Backs last night at the Cell I flipped on the TV to watch the Angels/Nationals game. Late in the game the Angels had a two run lead and brought on Brendan Donnelly. Frank Robinson had the umpires check Donnelly’s glove. They found pine tar, conficated Brendan’s glove, and ejected him from the game. Mike Scioscia was livid and got into Robinson’s face saying, “Let’s see how you like it when I get you back”. F-Robbie was livid, both benches emptied, tempers flared, and Nats outfielder Jose Guillen had to be restrained. Last season the Angels cut Guillen when he got into it with Scioscia.
The next inning Mike Scioscia challenged that Nats reliver Gary Majewski’s strings on his glove were too long and they needed to be trimmed, again tempers flared. As the game progressed Jose Guillen got ahold of a low fastball thrown by Scott Shields and blasted a two run shot over the fence to tie the ballgame. The Nationals scored two more times in the inning and held on for the victory.
I was a little surprised by Scioscia’s actions and remarks quite honestly. Instead of yelling at Robbie he should have been yelling at his pitcher.
Then to challenge Majewski the very next inning was pettiness at its worst.
Quote from Scioscia regarding Donnelly’s tar: He said it is “used around baseball,” doesn’t alter the flight of the ball and usually isn’t an issue.
Is this true? I honestly don’t know. If so, change the rules. If not, better check the Angels pitchers more often ;-)
Finally, Donnelly was caught with an extra ball in his pocket a week or so ago. The umps didn’t penalize him. I didn’t think much of it at the time but now that this has happened, it does make you wonder.
Just came down that Donnelly got a 10-game suspension for the nasty pine tar in his glove.
If Scioscia thinks it is indeed “used around baseball”, he better put out a memo to his pitchers ASAP that MLB is going to crack down nonetheless.