Cardinals starter Adam Wainwright’s answers Monday night about his name appearing in a Sports Illustrated story about some of the top pitchers in baseball using one of the sticky concoctions the league has now decided to crack down on left me with three conclusions.
— Number one is that it’s hard for me to get worked up about pitchers using a product that consisted of a mix of pine tar, Manny Mota grip stick and other substances we see slathered all over hitters bats and batting helmets, especially when they were doing so long before the league showed any noticeable interest in caring about the trend, let alone stopping it. Wainwright experimented with the stuff in 2019, he said. He ordered one batch of the concoction this week’s Sports Illustrated story centered on. Fewer than 10 games he used it, he said. Check out his numbers from that 2019 season. Didn’t seem to help him much. He said he ended up giving the rest of it away, likely to his teammates, who I’m sure used it, too. Specifically, Wainwright said he could not find a good place to smear the substance. He didn't like the way it altered his release point, either.
“I tried it,” Wainwright said. “Didn’t like it. I got rid of it. Haven’t pitched with it in years. So, I got nothing to hide. If that gets me in trouble because I did it years ago, then so be it. I pitched without it for however many years that is until 2019, and I’ve pitched without however many years since 2019 without it. I’ve got nothing to hide. You can check my glove. You can check my hat. You can watch me like a hawk all game long. You will never see me with any of that stuff on me, ever. I’ve got nothing to hide. The truth shall set me free.”
