Joe Blanton definitely looked pretty good on the mound last night for the Phillies, but it looks like he may have had some help. Blanton definitely had some kind of substance on the front bill of his cap, as you can see to your right, and he spent all night grabbing the bill before throwing pitches.
Rays manager Joe Maddon thought it was likely pine tar, and informed the umpire about it.
"We did notice it was rather dark," said Maddon, whose team looked mostly helpless against Blanton's stuff on Sunday night. "I did bring it to [the umpires'] attention. I asked them to just watch it and be vigilant about it, and nothing happened. But I was concerned about it early on."
Naturally, Blanton said he did nothing wrong.
"It's nothing," Blanton said after his win in Game 4. "They rub the balls up with whatever they rub them with. I'm constantly trying to get moisture. It's nothing sticky. Anybody can go touch [the cap]. It's just dirt from the ball."
Right, because we all know how dirty baseballs are during major league games. They're downright filthy. Wait, no they aren't.
And here's the other thing. Blanton's lame excuse might be somewhat believable if it was just this one time. But guess, he's done this multiple times before. Blanton had a similar looking substance on the brim of his cap during his stellar performance in the NLCS against the Dodgers. And he's apparently been doing this all year, as evidenced by the fact that he again had a similar substance on his hat when he was still with the Oakland A's before getting traded to the Phils.
Now, some people say, why on earth would a guy put pine tar on his hat in the days of HDTV? Well, if you haven't been caught yet, why would you stop doing it? Plus you almost have a built in excuse, as in it can't possibly be pine tar because no one would be stupid enough to use pine tar while appearing on HDTV.
Anyway, it's unlikely that this mattered much in last night's game, seeing as the Phillies - including Joe Blanton - were pounding the heck out of the ball. But, as we all know with baseball, you never really know what might have happened.
And as far as I'm concerned, I'm pretty sure that was pine tar.
Filthy Joe Blanton says that's just filth on the brim of his hat [Big League Stew]
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