Max Scherzer’s suspension will not have the New York Mets going down without a fight. Or at least a troll job.
Eacch of the player’s chairs in the team’s clubhouse had a T-shirt that read “Sweat and Rosin.” A message referring to Scherzer’s 10-game discipline that took place after he said it was just sweat and rosin on Wednesday against the Los Angeles Angels.
“I don’t know who brought ‘em in, how they got there,” Mets manager Buck Showalter told the media on Tuesday, including AP Sports. “I’m not in the T-shirt policing business — but I could be.”
Reports are stating that several Mets are wearing shirts that say “Sweat and Rosin” in support of Scherzer.
Our own @nineteen86d designed these beauties, available at https://t.co/yDxUwX5q0g! #LGM pic.twitter.com/R0jag2kCMH
— Metsmerized Online (@Metsmerized) April 25, 2023
We don’t know if any of the players wore the shirts that were sent to the team, but
Scherzer actually swore on the lives of his kids that’s all his hands possessed.
Last Wednesday, the ace was ejected by umpire Phil Cuzzi after a foreign substance check. Cuzzi appeared to have found something inside of Scherzer’s glove which resulted in an ejection.
Crew chief Dan Bellino discussed the incident saying Scherzer’s hand was “the stickiest that it has been since I’ve been inspecting hands.”
MLB reviewed the video and in addition to first-person reports detailed wrote in a statement that Scherzer had received a warning and was told to wash his hands earlier in the game.
The umpires inspected Mr. Scherzer for a final time when he was walking to the mound to pitch in the fourth inning, and found that Mr. Scherzer’s throwing hand was even more glossy and sticky than it was during the second inning inspection, despite not yet even throwing a pitch. Based on the umpires’ training to detect rosin on a pitcher’s hands, they concluded that the level of stickiness during the fourth inning check was so extreme that it was inconsistent with the use of rosin and/or sweat alone. Both umpires reported difficulty removing the substance from their own hands for multiple innings afterward. Consistent with the Official Baseball Rules, the umpires then appropriately ejected Mr. Scherzer from the game.
Scherzer originally had appealed the suspension, but dropped it not too long after.
“I thought I was going to get in front of a neutral arbitrator but I wasn’t. It was going to be through MLB. Given that process I wasn’t going to come out on top,” Scherzer said last Thursday. “I’m going to follow what the Mets wanted me to do and that was to accept the suspension and come to a settlement.”
Scherzer will miss at least two starts in his suspension.
