In the seventh inning of Thursday Cardinals-Cubs game, St. Louis catcher Yadier Molina dropped to his knees to block a pitch in the dirt, then looked around frantically for the ball. After a few moments of confusion, he realized it was, bizarrely, stuck to his chest protector.
are you kidding me pic.twitter.com/Xsvl1NtngH
— VHS (@VanHicklestein) April 6, 2017
Here’s a full video of the play:
The only real explanation for the ball sticking like that is that Molina has a whole lot of pine tar or another adhesive substance on his chest protector, potentially for the purpose of mucking up the baseball.
Pitchers (and catchers) are not allowed to add a foreign substance to the ball, and while they may skirt that rule from time to time, we’ve seen uproar when, for example, Michael Pineda was caught with something on his neck. The unwritten rule seems to be, do what you’ve gotta do, but don’t make it obvious. Having the ball stick to your chest protector seems pretty obvious.
But surely Molina, one of the most beloved and respected players in the game, would never do something against the rules. Surely after the game he’d have a satisfying explanation for how the ball stuck like that to his chest.
Or, you know, maybe not.
Molina repeated "I don't know" when asked about the mystery ball. Said "That's a dumb question" when asked if he put something on protector.
— Ben Frederickson (@Ben_Fred) April 6, 2017
There were many explanations, true or false, Molina could have offered here. He could have said the dirt and grime of his chest protector became sticky. Or that pine tar from his bat must have made it onto his chest protector accidentally. Or he could have just genuinely professed to not know what the hell happened.
But shutting down and insulting the obvious question? That seems like a bad look.
Cubs manager Joe Maddon was asked what could have caused the ball to stick like that (“Pine tar? Stickum?”) and, with a smile, said he was sure it was velcro.
Molina is probably getting somewhat of a pass on this because he’s so deeply respected in baseball, but his dodginess here isn’t helping. The Cubs and Cardinals don’t play again until next month, but when they do, Chicago will likely be looking out for any substance on Molina’s chest protector. And if Yadi gets caught in a compromising situation again, he should probably have some real answers.
Ok, full disclosure here: I’m a Cardinals fan so take this as you will.
It’s pretty difficult to obscure a wad of pine tar on a bright red chest protector. In the video you can clearly see the entire protector and there are no obvious dark spots on it. So he’d either have to be using something that’s transparent or something else happened.