ESPNMLB

The Nationals Got A Rays Pitcher Ejected For Cheating Last Night, So Now Old Men Are Mad At Each Other

How do you get ejected from a baseball game – and cause an old-man feud – without even throwing a pitch? The answer for Rays reliever Joel Peralta: have a buttload of pine tar in your glove.

Ahead 5-4 in the eighth inning of a game against the Nationals in Washington, Peralta came out to the mound to warm up. With little fanfare, the umpires came to the mound and summoned Rays manager Joe Maddon. Soon, Peralta’s glove, followed by Peralta himself, were headed to the locker room. Why? Apparently, Nationals skipper Davey Johnson had been tipped off by someone on the bench that Peralta was likely cheating (Peralta pitched for Washington in 2010). The tip turned out to be correct: pine tar was found in Peralta’s glove.

Sounds like an open-and-shut case, right? Pitcher is found to have illegal substance, pitcher gets ejected. But it didn’t end there… because the controversy over the Peralta’s ejection led to a couple old men (specifically, Maddon and Johnson) getting FIRED UP. Here’s what Maddon said after the game:

“To single out Joel Peralta tonight and make him look like a bad guy or a villain of any kind, that’s what upsets me, that this is all going to lay on Joel and I don’t like that at all.”

Two assumptions are needed here: first, that a lot pitchers in baseball use pine tar, which probably is not true. The second is that you shouldn’t call out someone that you strongly suspect is cheating to gain an advantage against your team during a close game. Any manager is going to play the card Johnson was given to enhance his team’s chances. Oh, and the penalty for putting a foreign substance in your glove, according to MLB rules?  A 10-game suspension. Ouch. And Maddon wasn’t done being pissed:

“Insider trading, man. It’s bush,” Maddon said. “It’s bogus. That’s way too easy, right there.”

Well, if it’s so easy, perhaps Maddon could have taken precautionary measures and told his pitchers to stop cheating before they got hit by a lengthy suspension, likely hurting their chances in a tight AL East race.

It’s been a long time since we had a good pine tar controversy, and this one isn’t quite over yet – the Rays and Nationals have two more games to play in the series, and two grumpy old guys are still mad at each other. Video of the whole mess below.