Around the Empire: Yankees news - 6/9/21

Photo by David Berding/Getty ImagesNY Post | Dan Martin and Ken Davidoff: MLB is aggressively pursuing an end to the recent controversy of a long-time known fact about the game — pitchers like to use substances to get better grips on the baseball. It’s been around for a long time, and clubs have avoided calling out all but the most egregious examples because they all have pitchers using these methods, but recent advancements and the struggles of hitters to catch up to modern pitching has prompted MLB to finally step in.

This could be a problem for Gerrit Cole, who has been one of the marquee pitchers named as a user of these substances. Cole faced the media for the first time since this most…