Let’s talk about the sticky stuff in baseball

Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty ImagesWith batting averages continuing to plummet around baseball in correlation with a rise in strikeouts and pitcher velocity, there has been increased attention on what pitchers are doing to improve their performance. Recent articles at The Athletic, Sports Illustrated and ESPN have revealed just how widespread and extreme the use of foreign substances is in baseball.

One ball made its way into an NL dugout last week, where players took turns touching a palm to the sticky material coating it and lifting the baseball, adhered to their hand, into the air. Another one, corralled in a different NL dugout, had clear-enough fingerprints indented in…