10 days is a lil much for a first time (caught) offender

 

I can side with 6 or 7.

i'm pretty sure one of the reasons they gave him 10 days is because he's a reliever.

 

imo thats not much at all...at *most*, thats like 5 innings.

i'm pretty sure one of the reasons they gave him 10 days is because he's a reliever.

 

imo thats not much at all...at *most*, thats like 5 innings.

527094[/snapback]

 

Well yea but MLB is dead off on their suspensions.. Say if a starter gets suspended 10 days it will be at the most 2 games. Relievers get penalized more than starters because they could pitch every day.

 

Anyways he's appealing this suspension and it'll be brought down hopefully to 7 or so games which I could accept

 

BTW, Steve Kline is now wearing clean hats. he doesnt wanna take any chances :lol

 

Edit-

 

 

Kline bids adieu to his dirty caps

 

CINCINNATI - The 10-day suspension levied by the commissioner's office against Julian Tavarez claimed another casualty within hours of its announcement:

 

Steve Kline's dirty hats are no more.

 

Kline confirmed Wednesday afternoon that he has retired the road and home versions of the filthy cap that elevated him to cult status in four seasons as the Cardinals' durable and unpredictable lefthanded middle reliever.

 

"It's not worth it anymore. It's not worth the risk," Kline said a day after Tavarez's suspension was announced. "If someone wants to make an issue of it, I don't want to get suspended for 10 days and leave us short-handed."

 

Tavarez was punished, but not fined, for applying what Friday's umpiring crew believed was pine tar to his cap while pitching against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium.

 

Bob Watson, baseball's vice president of on-field operations, cited a "foreign substance" on balls thrown by Tavarez as proof of an infraction that merited a harsher sentence than that given Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa for corking his bat last season. Tavarez has appealed the sentence and remains eligible to pitch while a date is scheduled.

 

Kline reacted defiantly when the commissioner's office attempted to enforce a stricter uniform policy in spring 2003. But he changed his tune now.

 

"If we've had one suspension, it won't take much for us to get another one," said Kline, who called his hat's discoloration a mixture of sweat, spit and tobacco juice. "If someone makes an issue of it, who knows what an umpire may think he sees? I'd rather pitch and play than sit. I saw what happened to Tavarez."

 

Kline's dirty hat has become so popular among Cardinals fans that the club made it a promotion item last season. The routine Kline employed to mutilate his caps became part of lore, including catcher Mike Matheny's biting off the button.

 

Kline insisted the decision to go "clean" was his own, saying, "I took it into my own hands."

 

Cards pitching coach Dave Duncan warned Tavarez about the possibility of a future problem after the pitcher was checked at the urging of Philadelphia Phillies manager Admin Bowa in April. Unlike Friday's incident against the Pirates, the umpiring crew took no action against Tavarez four months ago.

 

Tavarez continued to use a discolored cap, claiming it came from his habit of wiping perspiration from his head after every pitch.

 

Still incensed by the severity of Tavarez's suspension, manager Tony La Russa continued to press for ownership involvement in taking the club's case to Commissioner Bud Selig. La Russa believes the central office may take advantage of the franchise because of its traditionally low profile when dealing with edgy issues.

 

"If anything happens involving the Yankees, (general partner George) Steinbrenner is going to come out blasting everybody in sight," La Russa said. "I think the perception is, 'These are the Cardinals and they are just going to suck it up and keep going.' There's no way, if you were there the day it happened, you'd think it was a 10-day incident. It's just shocking."

 

Added La Russa: "Me saying this doesn't mean anything, but if someone with pull starts making a fuss ... it may not mean anything, but at least it will be different from what's usually the case."

10 games is too much. Especially if he doesn't get paid.

New owner of Tavarez cap says lab tests showed nothing but grime

 

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Julian Tavarez's baseball cap is dirty and grimy -- but not illegal, according to the man who now owns it.

 

Tavarez, a right-handed reliever for the St. Louis Cardinals, is appealing a 10-game suspension handed down Tuesday for having pine tar on the cap. He was ejected from the first game of a doubleheader on Aug. 20 at Busch Stadium after Pittsburgh Pirates manager Lloyd McClendon questioned the cap. Tavarez frequently fingers the bill of the cap, raising concern that he uses an illegal substance.

 

Umpire crew chief Joe West inspected the hat and said Tavarez and manager Tony La Russa ``as much admitted'' to the presence of pine tar, which could be used to improve a pitcher's grip on the baseball. Tavarez was ejected and as he left the field he tossed the cap to a fan in a box seat behind the St. Louis dugout.

 

But Gene McNary, a former St. Louis County executive who is running again for the county's highest office,said the cap is guilty only of being filthy.

 

Aides paid $140 to the fan who caught the cap, then gave it to McNary.

 

At the urging of KSDK-TV sports reporter Frank Cusamano, McNary took the cap to St. Louis Testing Laboratories, where substances on it were analyzed.

 

McNary said the lab tested specifically for both pine tar and resin amd results revealed dust and dirt, but nothing illegal.

 

The Cardinals intend to forward the cap to Major League Baseball for further testing. Once he gets the cap back, McNary plans to donate it to La Russa, who has expressed an interest in auctioning it to benefit the Animal Rescue Foundation.

 

Tavarez continues to play pending a hearing on his appeal. In his first year in St. Louis, he has emerged as the right-handed set-up man for closer Jason Isringhausen and was 6-4 with a 2.63 ERA and three saves entering Friday's game at Pittsburgh.

Tavarez's suspension reduced

Cardinals upset that reliever is still out eight games

By Matthew Leach / MLB.com

 

 

Julian Tavarez was ejected on Aug. 20 for wearing a suspicious cap. (James A. Finley/AP)

 

DENVER -- St. Louis reliever Julian Tavarez had his suspension reduced from 10 games to eight on Friday, but the decision by Major League Baseball did not sit well with Tavarez or the Cardinals.

 

Tavarez is ineligible immediately, and will not be permitted to pitch again until Oct. 2, the penultimate day of the regular season.

 

Tavarez was suspended for applying a foreign substance to baseballs in an Aug. 20 game against the Pirates. The substance was allegedly pine tar, though Tavarez claims he had no pine tar and the team asserts that tests run in a St. Louis laboratory indicate the same thing. The club had hoped the suspension would be reduced dramatically, if not entirely eliminated, upon appeal.

 

"If I was guilty, I wouldn't care if I got 30 games," said Tavarez. "But I'm innocent. I don't have anything on my hat. It was dirt and resin. When we had the [appeal], I thought things were gonna get better. I was wrong about that. The meeting went so well and everything, and look what I found out now, eight games. I'm so surprised."

 

Manager Tony La Russa was more than surprised.

 

"It literally staggered me," he said. "I flinched, I couldn't believe it when Walt [Jocketty, general manager] said it. It's incredible to me and the more you think about it, the angrier you get."

 

La Russa told a group of reporters that he feels the Cardinals tend to receive stiffer penalties from MLB than some other clubs.

 

"They've got some favored franchises that they know are going to really be popular with the general public," he said. "And when the rest of us get in the way, we're just examples. We get nailed and they say there was a precedent for what we did. But then somebody else goes into it and the precedent doesn't apply."

 

Tavarez reportedly was offered a compromise of five games when the Cardinals were on the West Coast earlier this month. However, he and the team were confident that an appeal would lead to a better fate than that.

 

The reduced suspension is the same duration as that handed down to Sammy Sosa on appeal last year after Sosa was caught using a corked bat in a game. That comparison didn't sit well with the Redbirds.

 

"Sosa was guilty," Tavarez said. "I am not. I haven't done that. I don't think I should have been suspended at all. I don't think I should have been thrown out of the game. I think I should have stayed in the game. There was nothing on the ball."

 

Tavarez has been the Cardinals' primary right-handed setup reliever this season. With the best record in the National League already secured, it won't be a major problem to go without him for the next eight days.

 

However, Tavarez's readiness for the playoffs is a concern. He tends to be at his best when he gets regular work.

 

"This is our No. 1 setup guy," said La Russa, "and he's gonna get two games at the end of the season to get ready for the postseason."

 

Tavarez to sit out eight games for using foreign substance

 

DENVER (AP) -- An appeal did little to help St. Louis reliever Julian Tavarez, who was suspended for eight days Friday for applying a foreign substance to balls while pitching last month.

 

Tavarez was ejected from a game Aug. 24 against Pittsburgh when umpires inspected his grimy hat. After the game, crew chief Joe West said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa ``as much admitted'' it was pine tar on Tavarez's cap.

 

Tavarez was originally handed a 10-day suspension. The penalty, which began with Friday's game at Colorado, was reduced by two days after the appeal.

 

Still, La Russa was livid, not only because Tavarez won't return until Oct. 2, with just two games remaining in the regular season, but because he doesn't think the penalty is appropriate for the transgression.

 

``Every year, there have been some hot competitions all over the league, and there have been some eruptions involving players, umpires, all of which are so much worse for our game ... and those things routinely get penalized with two, three, five games. And this is an eight-gamer? For something they haven't even proven? What kind of message is baseball sending there? The message I get is a bad one,'' La Russa said.

 

The commissioner's office had no further comment, spokesman Pat Courtney said.

 

Tavarez (7-4, 2.45 ERA) is St. Louis' main setup man in the bullpen. He sounded resigned to the suspension.

 

``What am I going to do?'' he said. ``I won't have a lot of time before the playoffs.''

one word: karma

of all the players in baseball, he is the one I despise most