New York Mets closer Edwin Diaz served a 10-game suspension earlier this season after he was ejected for "sticky stuff," a rule prohibiting players from using any foreign substance to "discolor or damage the ball," according to rule 3.01 of the official MLB rules and regulations.
Tuesday night, the same umpire, Vic Carapazza, who ejected Diaz addressed Chicago Cubs pitcher Justin Steele for a sticky stuff concern, but instead of ejecting him, asked him to go and wash his hands. He stayed in the game.
This was the same umpire who immediately tossed Edwin Diaz in June. pic.twitter.com/MYrSN4QNMZ https://t.co/VCtyFExuiP
— Foul Territory (@FoulTerritoryTV) August 28, 2024
The rule is excruciatingly arbitrary and has been critiqued for that reason, but it gives umpires a great deal of latitude and discretion to judge the situation how they see fit because of how open-ended it is.
And that's exactly why one umpire can treat two similar situations very differently.
There could be a number of good-enough explanations for why the situations were treated differently. Maybe it was an obviously less egregious substance. Perhaps the umpire was directed to escalate such situations slower after the Diaz incident was criticized en masse. Maybe Steele's hand was sticky, but not that sticky. Hate that explanation all you want, but that's a problem with the rule, not with the umpire.
For what it's worth, hand washing is not explicitly referenced in the rulebook.
Don't hate the player, hate the game. Don't hate the umpire, hate the rulebook.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Ump Who Tossed Edwin Díaz For Sticky Stuff Has Completely Changed His Approach.
