Think back to two years ago, when you first snickered at the idea of a sticky balls controversy in Major League Baseball. Without rehashing the specifics and without making any assumption about intent, the broad strokes of the issue were: Applying foreign substances to baseballs has always been prohibited; however, pitchers generally require some sort of additional tackiness to get a good grip. The rules relating to sticky stuff had gone unenforced for decades, allowing a creeping increase in usage that became tactically beneficial with a better understanding of how spin rates impact pitches.
In a way, there were two problems: a culture of permissiveness that had created an aesthetic concern in the game (pitchers dominating hitters) and some pitchers going to particular extremes to give themselves a competitive advantage (i.