Reliever ejected for dirty cap

 

By R.B. FALLSTROM, AP Sports Writer

August 20, 2004

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- St. Louis Cardinals reliever Julian Tavarez keeps running into trouble with his grimy, dirt-smudged cap. For the first time this season, it got him ejected.

 

Tavarez lasted one out in a 5-4 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates in the opener of a day-night doubleheader Friday. Umpire crew chief Joe West conducted a lengthy inspection of the cap before the eighth inning before tossing Tavarez, who made a flamboyant exit.

 

First, Tavarez put his arm around home plate umpire Ron Kulpa and suggested the two get a beer after the game. Then he flipped his cap to a fan in the stands behind the dugout on his way off the field.

 

 

``He asked me if it was pine tar and it was like 'No, it's just a dirty hat,''' Tavarez said. ``Every pitch I throw I touch my hat, just like a lot of guys.

 

``I asked him if I could wear another hat and he said 'No, you're out of the game.'''

 

West said he was enforcing Rule 802.b, which prohibits foreign substances on uniforms and caps. He also said Tavarez and manager Tony La Russa ``as much admitted'' it was pine tar on his cap.

 

``I said, 'Well, Tony, you know he can't have pine tar on his hat, it can't be anywhere on him,''' West said. ``By rule, I have to kick him out of the game.

 

``Do you like kicking a guy out of a game because he had pine tar on his hat? No. If he was using it to cheat, he should be kicked out of the game.''

 

The Cardinals are the sixth team in six years for Tavarez, who played for the Pirates last season. He was disappointed that manager Lloyd McClendon would use such a tactic, and deposited a handful of his clean caps on McClendon's desk after being ejected.

 

Tavarez also disapproved of the Pirates checking his hat in a game Pittsburgh had trailed 4-1.

 

``If the game was tied, let's mess with his head,'' Tavarez said. ``It's 4-1, you're 35 games out, you ain't going nowhere, what are you doing? I got a little sad and I just took my hats over there.''

 

McClendon confirmed he was the source of the inspection.

 

``It was brought to my attention on my bench,'' McClendon said. ``It looked as if there was something on his hat and we just asked the umpire to check.

 

``We didn't know what it was or anything and we still don't know what it was.''

 

It's the third time this season that Tavarez' cap has come under scrutiny, with the Braves and Phillies also complaining. He started the second game of the doubleheader with a spotless version.

 

``It will be clean as long as I'm not playing,'' Tavarez said. ``Once I start warming up, it's going to get dirty.

 

``This is the way it is.''

I hate Julian Tavarez, I was watching that Pirates/Cards game where they checked his hat and they showed all sorts of closeups on TV and it was just so obvious he was cheating and had pinetar on his hat. He would ALWAYS touch the "dirtiest" part of the hat right before every pitch he made, again, so obvious. No other pitcher in all of baseball has a hat that looks like that, the other "dirty" hats worn by other pitchers just have minor white smudges from the rosin bag.

 

I'm just surprised it took this long for action to be taken against him, he deserves a suspension.

Brief Recap of today..

 

Game 1:

Tavarez gets asked to leave game (He wasnt officially ejected) for a "dirty hat" and after that happened he hugged the umpire asked him to have a beer with him after the game and gave his hat to a fan LoL..

 

Postgame interview quotes!

 

"It's bull(bleep) baseball. A bull(bleep) move." - Larussa Questioning McClendon's Move to Check Hat

 

"The score is 4-1. You guys are 35 games out. You're not going anywhere. What are you doing? You're 35 out. You're not playing for the wild card. You aren't going anywhere." - Tavarez on the Pirates

 

After the postgame interview, Julian walks to the visitor's clubhouse and puts clean hats on the Managers desk then was found saying. "You want hats? I gave them hat's"

 

McClendon apparently wasn't pleased with Tavarez' gift. Rick Hummel of the St Louis Post Dispatch went to the skipper's office to get McClendon's side and in the process asked about the hats. McClendon stormed out of his office, refusing to comment.

 

Game 2:

Tavarez enters game w/clean hat and everything and gets a strikeout vs the only batter he faced. Tavarez then jogged to the dugout and gripped the bill of his cap and went to his glove back and forth about a dozen times with a big smile on his face.

 

This dude is a trip and it's nice seeing him have a career year w/ us.. Suspend him for what? If he gets suspended why doesnt Kline? Why doesnt anyone check Kline's cap? It's just as dirty.. Ridiculous if he gets suspended.. Hell wtf take the hat's away (They've done this 3 times) and he still got the job done..

 

:lol

someone should post a picture of it

he still is one ugly mofo

he still is one ugly mofo

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But one thing I'll always cherish is my Julian Tavarez bobblehead.

no reason for him to get suspended and theres was no reason to be tossed out of a game for a dirty hat. even if its in the rule book. IMO that rule should not exist. He wasnt cheating at all.

no reason for him to get suspended and theres was no reason to be tossed out of a game for a dirty hat. even if its in the rule book. IMO that rule should not exist. He wasnt cheating at all.

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The rule not existing is asking for cheating

Pine Tar on a cap cheating? Come on now

Pine Tar on a cap cheating? Come on now

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You don't understand what's going on, it is cheating and everytime he throws a pitch he rubs pinetar on the sweet spot of the ball in the same manner one would with spit, vaseline, and other illegal foreign substances. Both Tony Larussa and Tavarez pretty much admitted that it was pinetar after the game in the press conference. He deserves a suspension and a fine and i'm sure he'll receive both, you obviously don't realize how serious this is. There is absolutely no excuse for a pitcher to have pinetar on the brim of his hat unless he was cheating, period.

there's an allure to pitchers cheating: it is hard to explain.

You don't understand what's going on, it is cheating and everytime he throws a pitch he rubs pinetar on the sweet spot of the ball in the same manner one would with spit, vaseline, and other illegal foreign substances. Both Tony Larussa and Tavarez pretty much admitted that it was pinetar after the game in the press conference. He deserves a suspension and a fine and i'm sure he'll receive both, you obviously don't realize how serious this is. There is absolutely no excuse for a pitcher to have pinetar on the brim of his hat unless he was cheating, period.

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I'm not gonna say he cheated or does but why doesnt Kline get checked more often? Why only Tavarez?

 

What he did was wrong no matter how much I dont think he did anything illegal. I mean how is this any different than Manny Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero having stuff on their batting helmets.. I seriously dont think it's much different.. Ok maybe the pitching movement is better but geez..

 

So does him coming in Game 2 with a Clean Hat and striking out a batter to end the inning mean he was cheating there? Anyways if he gets suspended big deal, we're still good LoL :whistle

You don't understand what's going on, it is cheating and everytime he throws a pitch he rubs pinetar on the sweet spot of the ball in the same manner one would with spit, vaseline, and other illegal foreign substances. Both Tony Larussa and Tavarez pretty much admitted that it was pinetar after the game in the press conference. He deserves a suspension and a fine and i'm sure he'll receive both, you obviously don't realize how serious this is. There is absolutely no excuse for a pitcher to have pinetar on the brim of his hat unless he was cheating, period.

521183[/snapback]

 

I'm not gonna say he cheated or does but why doesnt Kline get checked more often? Why only Tavarez?

 

What he did was wrong no matter how much I dont think he did anything illegal. I mean how is this any different than Manny Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero having stuff on their batting helmets.. I seriously dont think it's much different.. Ok maybe the pitching movement is better but geez..

 

So does him coming in Game 2 with a Clean Hat and striking out a batter to end the inning mean he was cheating there? Anyways if he gets suspended big deal, we're still good LoL :whistle

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Tavarez is checked more often than Kline due to the simple fact that he rubs the "dirty" part of his hat before every single pitch he throws, it is so obvious as to what he is doing and this causes teams and umpires to become suspicious very easily.

 

Manny Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero do not wear their batting helmets in the field on defense and there is no possible way they could gain an advantage from having a dirty hat, even if they had pinetar on their hats they could not gain an advantage because they are not pitchers, this is why they're never scrutinized. Pitchers are always finding ways to make their breaking balls break even more and pinetar, vaseline, saliva, and other foreign substances do just that and thus are illegal. The dirty hat/uniform rule is never enforced unless there is a suspicion of cheating, and a lot of people suspected Tavarez is cheating and their suspicions were confirmed.

 

Him coming into game 2 with a clean hat and striking out a batter is completely irrelevant and has absolutely nothing to do with his cheating in game 1 and many other games before that.

Why doesnt MLB just forfeit the Cardinals and give them losses for each game he's pitched in if he cheats so much.. I mean that would be the fair thing right? :blink: :lol

Why doesnt MLB just forfeit the Cardinals and give them losses for each game he's pitched in if he cheats so much.. I mean that would be the fair thing right? :blink: :lol

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They should do that with Bonds and the Giants. :whistle

You don't understand what's going on, it is cheating and everytime he throws a pitch he rubs pinetar on the sweet spot of the ball in the same manner one would with spit, vaseline, and other illegal foreign substances.? Both Tony Larussa and Tavarez pretty much admitted that it was pinetar after the game in the press conference.? He deserves a suspension and a fine and i'm sure he'll receive both, you obviously don't realize how serious this is.? There is absolutely no excuse for a pitcher to have pinetar on the brim of his hat unless he was cheating, period.

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I'm not gonna say he cheated or does but why doesnt Kline get checked more often? Why only Tavarez?

 

What he did was wrong no matter how much I dont think he did anything illegal. I mean how is this any different than Manny Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero having stuff on their batting helmets.. I seriously dont think it's much different.. Ok maybe the pitching movement is better but geez..

 

So does him coming in Game 2 with a Clean Hat and striking out a batter to end the inning mean he was cheating there? Anyways if he gets suspended big deal, we're still good LoL :whistle

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It's not the same thing, because Vlad, Biggio, Manny, etc. use pine tar to grip the bat better. It's perfectly legal. You can't have too much (ask George Brett) but it's legal because it doesn't effect how far the ball goes, or whether or not you hit it. Just keeps your grip. Plus they don't touch their helmet to get an illegal substance, so it's perfectly legal.

 

Pine tar on the hat is illegal because you aren't allowed to put any substance on the ball.

Why doesnt MLB just forfeit the Cardinals and give them losses for each game he's pitched in if he cheats so much.. I mean that would be the fair thing right? :blink: :lol

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For the same reason they did not disallow Sammy Sosa's records and stats after it was discovered his bat was corked.

(ask George Brett)521510[/snapback]

 

The choke hold was hilarious. I wish ESPN Classic would show a replay of that game one of these days :lol .

You don't understand what's going on, it is cheating and everytime he throws a pitch he rubs pinetar on the sweet spot of the ball in the same manner one would with spit, vaseline, and other illegal foreign substances.? Both Tony Larussa and Tavarez pretty much admitted that it was pinetar after the game in the press conference.? He deserves a suspension and a fine and i'm sure he'll receive both, you obviously don't realize how serious this is.? There is absolutely no excuse for a pitcher to have pinetar on the brim of his hat unless he was cheating, period.

521183[/snapback]

 

I'm not gonna say he cheated or does but why doesnt Kline get checked more often? Why only Tavarez?

 

What he did was wrong no matter how much I dont think he did anything illegal. I mean how is this any different than Manny Ramirez and Vlad Guerrero having stuff on their batting helmets.. I seriously dont think it's much different.. Ok maybe the pitching movement is better but geez..

 

So does him coming in Game 2 with a Clean Hat and striking out a batter to end the inning mean he was cheating there? Anyways if he gets suspended big deal, we're still good LoL :whistle

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It's not the same thing, because Vlad, Biggio, Manny, etc. use pine tar to grip the bat better. It's perfectly legal. You can't have too much (ask George Brett) but it's legal because it doesn't effect how far the ball goes, or whether or not you hit it. Just keeps your grip. Plus they don't touch their helmet to get an illegal substance, so it's perfectly legal.

 

Pine tar on the hat is illegal because you aren't allowed to put any substance on the ball.

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i have to agree, and disagree with you here. i agree its cheating on tavarez's part. but why do they allow rosen bags then? and yea, gripping a bat may not have anything to do with how far you hit a ball, but grip on a ball doesnt make a difference on how fast you throw a pitch. and even though you may have an arguement by saying that it makes their breaking pitches break more, i could argue by saying that a pine tar grip makes a hitters swing more solid. my opinion is, if you ban foreign substances, then ban it completely. its just like saying a hitter could take steroids, but pitchers cant. either you emphazise the rule both ways or you dont at all.

The rosin bag is the equivalent of the batter's version of pine tar. Helps grip a little bit, that's it. They cancel each other out.

 

Pine tar on the ball starts to have the same effect spit does. Should we re-allow spit balls then?

Tavarez suspended 10 games

 

CINCINNATI -- Julian Tavarez's cap has ceased to be a laughing matter. The Cardinals reliever received a 10-day suspension on Tuesday "for applying a foreign substance to baseballs while he was pitching." Tavarez was ejected from Friday afternoon's game against Pittsburgh when umpires detected an unknown substance on his hat.

 

Tavarez initially maintained that the substance was not pine tar, and the Cardinals insist that he was not using pine tar to gain an advantage. However, Major League Baseball saw the issue differently. Tavarez will appeal the suspension, which will not begin until the appeal is heard.

 

Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said he was "shocked" by the announcement. Tavarez had little to say on Tuesday afternoon, except to acknowledge that he was surprised by the ruling.

 

"Anybody that was there at the park and was involved that day, it really didn't seem to be a big deal," La Russa said. "I'm hoping once they get all the details, baseball will (view the situation differently)."

 

In the eighth inning of the first game of a doubleheader on Friday -- a game the Cards went on to win, 5-4 -- Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon asked the umpiring crew to check Tavarez's hat, which always has a grimy spot on it because he touches it after every pitch. First base umpire and crew chief Joe West ejected Tavarez for a "foreign substance."

 

With a combination of amusement and annoyance, Tavarez put his arm around home plate umpire Ron Kulpa as he walked off the field. Tavarez threw his hat into the stands, where a fan caught it. After the game, he wondered about the Pirates' motivation.

 

"Earlier this year, I had a couple of appearances against them, they didn't check my hat," he said Friday. "So why is Lloyd doing it now? The game is 4-1, they're like 35 games out. Why are they checking my hat? It doesn't make sense."

 

La Russa expressed frustration with what he perceives as continually harsh rulings against the Cardinals in disciplinary matters. He said he hopes that the team's ownership will say something to Major League Baseball about the subject.

 

"I don't think anybody has any fear that we're gonna raise too much of a fuss, and I think it's time to change that," he said. "It may not happen, because the owners may choose that that's not how they choose to conduct themselves."

 

McClendon, who managed Tavarez with the Pirates in 2003, said Tuesday that more than one Pittsburgh batter was suspicious of the movement on Tavarez's pitches.

 

"I had players coming back saying, 'Skip, I didn't know he had a 90-mph knuckler,'" McClendon said, "and then I had another player saying, 'Skip, I think he's cheating. Can you check him?' I have to do what's best for my players and best for my organization."

 

Even though the ejection drew La Russa's ire, the 10-game suspension -- longer than Sammy Sosa received for a corked bat last season -- had the Redbirds mystified.

 

"I think they're using him (as an example), by giving him that many days," said St. Louis reliever Ray King. "What's the difference between that and throwing a fastball at somebody's head and getting fewer days? A lot of guys are bitter about it. Hopefully it will get reduced because that's ridiculous, taking 10 days for a guy that's not using it to cheat."

 

Even McClendon was caught off guard by the stiffness of the penalty.

 

"I am certainly not happy that this young man got 10 days," he said. "I'm not sure how they came about that. I know the Cardinals are having a tremendous year and he is big part of it. I certainly don't want to see anything happen to their momentum. But my concern is for this organization and how my players react."

 

If anything works in the Cardinals' favor regarding the suspension, it is the timing. Teams may expand their rosters on Sept. 1, and there is a good chance that an appeal will not be heard and processed before then. Thus, they may not have to go with a short roster for any length of time.

 

Still, Tavarez has been a key player on the team with baseball's best record. He will be missed for any amount of time that he is out.

 

"Hopefully it will be appealed and get reduced," said King. "If you look around the league, he's probably not the only guy that has some different kind of substance on his hat. I don't think you look at Tavarez as a guy that cheats."

 

(10 days whatever.. Ridiculous.. how is this any different than Sosa's corked bat.. What was his suspension? 5 games or so? Excuse my language but 10 games is bulls*** but I could accept 5-7 games not 10 days!)

Well, Tavarez blew the game for the cards last night. :o

Tavarez suspended 10 games

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And well deserved :thumbup

I like Tavarez, he always hustles and is always into the game no matter what the score or situation is.

 

 

And I loved his days as a marlin, it was a trip :thumbup

 

 

i bet he would be best friends with Carlos Zambrano from the cubs

For the confused 10 day/10 game people..

 

At the earliest if he served tonight Cards would have 9 games in 10 days (Sept 4 vs Dodgers). If he waits until the 9th or so they'd have 9 games in 10 days (Sept 19 vs D'backs)..

 

Anyways 10 days is just as equal as 10 games here basically since the Cards are playing quite a bit of games here in that stretch.

 

I dont think it will hurt us at all. Infact it could help him rest up for the playoffs.. We'll see!

 

He'll appeal which he's doing and it should be lowered to around 7, the same games Sammy had because cheating is cheating I just think 10 games is too harsh!

 

Cheating is Cheating no matter what way you put it and I'm embarrased as a Cardinals fan he did this.

 

Glad he got suspended just not for 10 days (9 games)