Pitcher's Ejection Ignites Spat Over Baseball's 'Code'

A pitcher for the Tampa Bay Rays got ejected from a game last night for smearing pine tar in his glove, and the incident has set off a debate about the sport's "unwritten rules," writes Gabe Lacques at USA Today. The debate isn't about the not-so-shocking revelation that some pitchers use pine tar, it's about snitching. In this case, Washington Nationals manager Davey Johnson asked the umps to check Joel Peralta's glove. He had a pretty good guess what they'd find because Peralta used to pitch for the Nationals.

Should Johnson have used his "insider knowledge" to rat out a former player? Ask Rays manager Joe Maddon: He first called it "cowardly" before correcting himself to call it a "pussy move." He repeated it for emphasis. Eh, not so much, writes Shane Ryan at Grantland. "The inescapable fact is that Peralta was cheating, and Maddon's puzzling outrage is totally unjustified." It's hard to hit a baseball, he adds, and any "righteous indignation" belongs to the batters who face cheating pitchers. (More Davey Johnson stories.)