WATCH: MLB Player Takes Pants Off During Game While Being Searched For ‘Foreign Substances’ By Umpire

We’ve reached that time of the week where Major League Baseball has shown the world yet another example of their ineptitude. 

Commissioner Rob Manfred has no idea what he’s doing, aimlessly making decisions without any thought on the potential repercussions to a game that already has close to no ability to attract younger viewers. 

Major League Baseball has decided that the use of sticky substances on baseballs is their new “steroid era.” Unlike with steroids, foreign substances on baseballs don’t increase offense, so Manfred and MLB had seen enough, feigning their desire to “clean up the game” when in fact they just see offensive numbers dipping and want to reverse course. 

The decision to crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances on baseballs — a tradition that’s as long as the game itself — is just two days into being enforced, and it’s already a disaster. 

Under the new rules, pitchers are to be checked by umpires at random throughout the game. Starting pitchers will be inspected at least twice a game and relievers will be inspected either between innings or after a pitching change. The inspections will supposedly be completed in a manner that avoids making the games any longer than they already are. 

At least that was the idea.

The new rules created an embarrassing situation for Major League Baseball on Tuesday, with one of the game’s greatest pitchers being the focus. 

Washington Nationals pitcher Max Scherzer was inspected three times during his five-inning outing against the Philadelphia Phillies. The first two inspections were supposedly part of MLB’s new rules, but the third inspection was at the request of Phillies manager Joe Girardi, and that’s when the fun started. 

The third inspection came after Scherzer went high and tight on Alec Bohm in the fourth inning, buzzing a 95 mph fastball close to Bohm’s head. After striking out Bohm, Girardi requested that Scherzer be checked for foreign substances, and the three-time CY Young winner didn’t appreciate it. 

These pitcher checks in baseball are just absurd. pic.twitter.com/xZB9wXsa5W

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) June 23, 2021

After the inning, Scherzer stared down Girardi and the Phillies dugout, before Girardi responded and was subsequently ejected. 

After being checked for sticky substance 3 times tonight, Max Scherzer stared down Phillies Manager Joe Girardi while walking to the dugout. Girardi then left his dugout and had some words for Scherzer, which led to Girardi being ejected.pic.twitter.com/3laApv2YdR

— FOX Sports: MLB (@MLBONFOX) June 23, 2021

After the game, Scherzer was asked about the fiasco, and his comments were curt. 

“These are Manfred rules,” Scherzer said. “Go ask him. I’ve said enough.”

“I would have to be an absolute fool to actually use something tonight when everybody’s antenna is so far high they’d look for anything,” Scherzer continued. “I have absolutely zero on me. I have nothing on me. Check whatever you want. I’ll take off all my clothes if you want to see me.”

Scherzer discussed the pitch that caused the theatrics after the game, saying that he couldn’t get a grip on the baseball all night. 

“If you watch the Bohm at-bat, I almost put a 95 mph fastball in his head because the ball slipped out of my hand,” Scherzer said. “The whole night, I was sick of licking my fingers and tasting rosin. I couldn’t even get sweat from the back of my head, because it really wasn’t a warm night. So the only part that was sweaty on me was actually my hair, so I had to take off my hat to get any kind of moisture on my hand, to try and mix with the rosin. For me, that’s the confusing part, because I’m just trying to get a grip of the ball.”

Later on in the night of baseball, Oakland A’s reliever Sergio Romo was checked for foreign substances, and put on more of a show than Scherzer, taking his pants off on the field. 

Oakland A’s reliever Sergio Romo was checked for “sticky stuff” and might have upstaged Max Scherzer in the process. pic.twitter.com/wL1jqt4CgE

— Chris Halicke (@ChrisHalicke) June 23, 2021

Welcome to the new baseball, folks. Where players are frisked like they’re shuffling through the TSA. 

Manfred and Major League Baseball have made it so that pitchers are the fall guys, forcing them to be publicly shamed by umpires who have no interest in actually enforcing the new rules. 

The use of sticky substances by pitchers is universal. It was only until baseball realized that offensive numbers were down — maybe they shouldn’t have deadened the ball in the offseason? — that Manfred decided to take action. 

Just like in every other aspect of his tenure, Manfred has no idea how to run the league. The season is too long, the games take forever, and MLB’s social media presence is next to nothing. 

Baseball has embarrassed themselves once again, and it all falls on the incompetent leader — Rob Manfred.

Joe Morgan is the Sports Reporter for The Daily Wire. Most recently, Morgan covered the Clippers, Lakers, and the NBA for Sporting News. Send your sports questions to [email protected].

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