Phillies

Devious Max Scherzer Uses the Old “Rosin and Sweat” Excuse After Ejection

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Apr 20th, 2023 · 9:58 AM EDT

---

Mets pitcher Max Scherzer was ejected on Wednesday for ALLEGEDLY using sticky stuff on the mound.

Here’s his explanation:

Max Scherzer provides a detailed explanation on today's events, explaining how he feels that he should not have been ejected: pic.twitter.com/MMPDTcguVk

— SNY (@SNYtv) April 19, 2023

Hmmm. Not sure I believe him. He stumbled through that answer like your daughter’s boyfriend explaining why he didn’t have her home before 10 p.m. The inflection in his voice and nervous waffling? Guilty as charged! The “rosin and sweat” excuse is worse than “the dog ate my homework” or “my alarm clock didn’t go off.” You gotta come up with something more convincing than “rosin and sweat.”

Scherzer gets an automatic 10-game suspension for this and awaits trial. Not a big trial, like O.J. Simpson, of course, but he’ll get to plead his case to the people who actually matter.

For what it’s worth, the umps said this about the incident:

More from Bellino (via a pool reporter): "It was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers were sticking to his hand. And whatever was on there remained on our fingers (for a couple innings) … It was far more than we had ever seen before on a pitcher in live action."

— Tim Healey (@timbhealey) April 19, 2023

What’s interesting is that the ump who tossed him, Phil Cuzzi, has a reputation for this. Only three times have players been ejected for sticky stuff, and Cuzzi was the guy responsible on all three of those occasions.

Obviously rosin is not illegal and never has been, but the MLB rulebook states that it can’t be excessively used or misapplied, in this case on a glove or another part of the uniform, so that’s a sticking point here. Get it? Sticking point?

….

Anyway, we’ll see how the league folks end up ruling on this.