Tim Benz: Major League Baseball has no one to blame for 'sticky situation' but itself

As Major League Baseball plans to transition into the post-Spider Tack era on Monday, controversy is sure to follow.

Arguments. Social media flame wars. Whining pitchers. Beanballs — accidental and retaliatory. Slower games thanks to incessant spot checks, more walks, wild pitches and deeper counts.

And the game will have no one to blame but itself.

Because everything that has come around in the wake of the pitching sticky-stuff controversy is nothing more than a micro version of how the league handled — or failed to handle — the steroid debate of the late 90s and early 2000s.

In both cases baseball’s owners, front offices, managers and players all knew what was going on, and they all did nothing to address it before it got out of hand.

Pine tar hidden on pitchers’ clothing (and their necks) begat rosin and sunscreen. That begat hair gel and distilled Coca-Cola. That begat Spider Tack.

Conventions that were so commonly applied that no manager wanted to call out other teams for employing the tactics because their own pitchers were probably using those tactics themselves. It got to the point where some organizations have been alleged to endorse the practice.

Now usage is so widespread — and the technology of the substances is getting so good — pitching spin rates are unnaturally high and the impact on hitting is so severe that baseball is cracking down.

Starting Monday, pitchers who are busted for using anything besides rosin to improve grip will be given an automatic 10-game suspension. Team employees can also be suspended or fined for substances found in their clubhouse or dugout.

Starting pitchers will be checked more than once per game for foreign substances while relievers will be checked at least once.

In other words, MLB is trying to put the proverbial Pelican Grip back into the proverbial tube.

“I don’t use sticky stuff to … I don’t need more spin,” Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Tyler Glasnow said last week. “I have huge hands. I spin the ball fine. I want grip.”

Glasnow’s quote is eerily reminiscent of the old steroid debates. Back then, you’d hear hitters who were caught using steroids insisting they didn’t take them to increase strength or bat speed.

No. They only took steroids to aid in injury recovery … of course!

Oh, and players never took greenies to make themselves more alert and attentive during games. They just took them to make themselves wake up for those tough turnarounds on day games after night games, right?

Same thing with Spider Tack. “It’s not about spin rate. It’s just about grip. I’m not guilty of cheating if I’m cheating for less nefarious reasons. Can’t you see the difference?!!?”

Meanwhile, early statistics indicate that, as pitchers have started walking back using the sticky stuff, there appears to be a correlation with an uptick of some offensive numbers. USA Today recently reported that “hitters are batting a season-high .247 with a .318 on-base percentage and .419 slugging percentage in June compared to .236./.312/.395 the first two months.”

To be fair, I do see Glasnow’s greater point about changing these rules mid-season and how that could lead to more injuries — such as his own — and more hit batters.

Sure, but what’s Major League Baseball supposed to say? “We know you are cheating, but keep cheating the rest of the season and we’ll worry about it at winter meetings”?

No. What they should’ve done, though, is address it last winter. It’s not like this discussion was first talked about earlier this month.

“I understand there’s a history of foreign substances being used on the ball, but what we are seeing today is objectively far different, with much tackier substances being used more frequently than ever before,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement last month. “It has become clear that the use of foreign substances has generally morphed from trying to get a better grip on the ball into something else – an unfair competitive advantage that is creating a lack of action and an uneven playing field.”

Manfred’s words are basically what the thought bubble was over Bud Selig’s head when Major League Baseball essentially had to do a 180 on its old “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy about steroids two decades ago.

How are the checks of pitchers going to work? Who knows. Many umpires can’t command their own strike zones. Now they are supposed to be junior versions of Bill Nye the Science Guy to instantly determine what might be dirt mixed with rosin versus something illegal mixed with rosin?

Are they going to have small microscopes in the ball bags, too?

When it comes to baseball’s offensive crisis, the league can’t change everyone’s swing path to avoid non-stop overreliance on launch angle. It can’t make shifts illegal, nor can it force batters to swing away from them. It can’t bring back the stolen base, nor further restrict the matchup games coming out of the bullpens with relief specialists who top 95 miles per hour up and down the depth charts.

This is something the league office can address, though, so it’s going to try. I can’t blame those in charge for doing so.

But I bet implementing the new rules is going to be every bit as sticky as the substances they are trying to ban.