With Opening Day less than two weeks away, Major League Baseball is gearing up to keep the use of foreign substances out of the game.
As SI.com’s Tom Verducci reports, in the wake of pitchers supposedly finding ways to circumvent checks late in the 2021 season, MLB will further crackdown on its ban of sticky substances for the upcoming campaign.
Starting with this weekend’s spring training games and continuing throughout the regular season, umpires will now check a pitcher’s hand from top-to-bottom during their random between-innings inspections. Umps will also continue to investigate a pitcher’s hat, glove, and belt, as was the case last season.