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Thread: Bubba Harkins - LAA employee fired - accused of giving grip substance to pitchers

  1. #16
    Member bm1475's Avatar
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    Re: Bibba Harkins - LAA employee fired - accused of giving grip substance to pitchers

    I don't mean to imply he had a bad career, I watched him all the time in SD and it was honestly amazing seeing him get by on basically one pitch for a while there, that's all.


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  3. #17
    Member RustyJ's Avatar
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    Re: Bibba Harkins may hold the key to a better balance between hitting and pitching

    Quote Originally Posted by Crosley68 View Post
    Maybe also an increase in hit batsmen. Hitters have often been in favor of pitchers getting a bit better grip on the ball to avoid uncontrollable slippery balls.
    This seemed like the consensus ten years ago, but I can’t imagine too many hitters are still standing by it. Pitch tracking’s made it pretty obvious that extra grip and spin create a huge advantage for the pitcher.

  4. #18
    Member Crosley68's Avatar
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    Re: Bibba Harkins may hold the key to a better balance between hitting and pitching

    Quote Originally Posted by RustyJ View Post
    This seemed like the consensus ten years ago, but I can’t imagine too many hitters are still standing by it. Pitch tracking’s made it pretty obvious that extra grip and spin create a huge advantage for the pitcher.
    Agreed. There has to be a middle ground found. MLB has so far been unsuccessful creating a tackier ball.
    Let's play two!!!

  5. #19
    Member Ron Madden's Avatar
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    Re: Bubba Harkins - LAA employee fired - accused of giving grip substance to pitchers

    Solving MLB’s pine tar problem isn’t as easy as it looks. Here’s why
    Britt Ghiroli @Britt_Ghiroli
    Every day for two years, I heard about the damn Japanese sticky balls from former manager Buck Showalter.

    Why won’t MLB use them? Or legalize pine tar for pitchers?

    The more you dig, the messier it gets.

    In early 2019, Major League Baseball visited spring training camps with a new, buzzed-about toy: a sticky baseball. The baseballs, which weren’t the exact ones used (and often hailed by pitchers) in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) or the Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), were rolled out and given to groups of MLB pitchers and hitters to try out.
    https://theathletic.com/2319591/2021....co/ccn8p2vFxw

  6. #20
    Member boxseat's Avatar
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    Re: Bubba Harkins - LAA employee fired - accused of giving grip substance to pitchers

    Thoughts?

    How far back in time have pitcher's been using the substance? Are batter's cheating in a similar way (boosted bats)?

    Kind of reminded me of the magnetic golf ball you can buy at souvenir shops.
    Last edited by boxseat; 01-13-2021 at 01:29 PM.

  7. #21
    Rally Onion! Chip R's Avatar
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    Re: Bubba Harkins - LAA employee fired - accused of giving grip substance to pitchers

    I say let them use whatever substance they want on the ball. If they want to scuff it or put a foreign substance on it, let them. The original reason they outlawed the spitball was originally because Carl Mays hit Ray Chapman in the head with a pitch that killed him. One of the reasons people say Chapman was hit was because he couldn't see the ball. Back then they tried to use one ball a game. Also the game was in the late afternoon so because of a dirty ball and no lights, Chapman may not have seen it at all. Now the banning of it increased offense somewhat. I've also heard that because there was a pandemic then, they didn't want pitchers going to their mouths for fear of transmitting the flu.

    Is it unfair to the hitters for pitchers to throw doctored balls? I'll answer that question with another one: Is it unfair for a pitcher to throw a splitter or a sinker or a very good changeup? Of course not. Since throwing a doctored ball will have the same effect as those pitches do, it shouldn't be unfair to throw a doctored pitch. Since there are lights in every stadium, new balls put into play anytime a ball goes into the dirt and batters wear helmets there shouldn't be any worries about a doctored pitch killing someone any more than there shouldn't be any worries about any pitch killing a batter. A batter is more likely to be injured with a fastball than with a doctored ball.
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
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    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    Chip is right

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  9. #22
    Member bm1475's Avatar
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    Re: Bubba Harkins - LAA employee fired - accused of giving grip substance to pitchers

    Adding a foreign substance is a little different from using your hand's natural flexes/bends, your arm's flexes/bends and your fingers to make the ball move, though.

  10. #23
    Rally Onion! Chip R's Avatar
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    Re: Bubba Harkins - LAA employee fired - accused of giving grip substance to pitchers

    Quote Originally Posted by bm1475 View Post
    Adding a foreign substance is a little different from using your hand's natural flexes/bends, your arm's flexes/bends and your fingers to make the ball move, though.
    But the result is the same. It's not like a doctored ball disappears a foot from home plate and reappears in the catcher's mitt or does a dipsy do on the way to the plate. It's like saying you have to ban maple bats even though the ball comes off the same as an ash bat.
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    I was wrong
    Quote Originally Posted by Raisor View Post
    Chip is right


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