re: DAT 6/10: Astros (Greinke) @ Red Sox (Rodriguez) | 6:10 CT

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Ghiroli: Blame for MLB’s sticky substance controversy falls first on the league

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And while players like Cole, and perhaps upwards of 70 percent of the league’s pitchers — a conservative estimate depending on who you poll — are not blameless in this mess, they shouldn’t be alone in public scorn.

Make no mistake: This is a mess of Major League Baseball’s creation.

Like steroids, like video review room cheating, the liberal use of different substances on the mound has been around for years before it reached a public fever pitch. Only now, as the sport returns to its first full 162-game season since 2019, with a new baseball, does MLB find itself in hot water for years of feigned ignorance and not enforcing its own rules.

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Cutting-edge organizations, several of whom employ actual chemists, had found the perfect sticky formula and the league had handed them an even better baseball for pitchers to manipulate.

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But who enabled the system that allowed these pitchers to cash in? Who decided to ignore the sticky stuff for years? Was the initial hope that the entertainment value — like performance-enhancing drugs — would perhaps translate into more eyeballs and excitement for the sport? Does anyone think asking professional athletes to police themselves and follow the rules when there are millions of dollars and livelihoods at stake would work?

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Whatever new rules or regulations are put in place will be to enforce an existing rule. And while it’s easy to pile on the pitchers and pitching coaches and teams who knowingly broke the rules, the blame should not start there.

It should start with the league that allowed it, which — again — has waited and waited until a problem blew up to actually address it. Just like steroids. Just like the video review room.

How did we get here? By the sport closing its eyes and looking away from the problem, game after game, year after year.

Commissioner Rob Manfred has a tough task now, effectively putting the genie back into the bottle. Still, it’s hard to feel any sympathy when the problem is largely self-inflicted.

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