George Brett Pine Tar Incident
What was the Pine Tar incident?
What was the George Brett's Pine Tar incident?
On July 24, 1983, the Royals played the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. In the top of the ninth inning with two out, Brett hit a go-ahead two-run homer off of Goose Gossage to put the Royals up 5-4. Upon Brett crossing the plate, Yankees manager Billy Martin cited to the umpires a rule that stated that any foreign substance on a bat could extend no further than 18 inches from the knob. The umpires measured the amount of pine tar, a legal substance used by hitters to improve their grip, on Brett's bat; the pine tar extended about 24 inches. The home plate umpire, Tim McClelland, signaled Brett out, ending the game as a Yankees win. In a now famous image, an enraged Brett charged out of the dugout sprinting directly toward McClelland and had to be physically restrained by two umpires and a Royals coach.  The Royals protested the game, and American League president Lee MacPhail upheld the protest, reasoning that the bat should have been excluded from future use but the home run should not have been nullified. Amid much controversy, the game was resumed on August 18 from the point of Brett's home run and ended with a Royals win.  In 1985, Brett had another brilliant season in which he helped propel the Royals to their second American League Championship. He batted .335 with 30 home runs and 112 RBI, finishing in the top 10 of the league in 10 different offensive categories. Defensively, he won his only Gold Glove, which broke Buddy Bell's six-year run of the award. In the final week of the regular season, he went 9-for-20 at the plate with 7 runs, 5 homers, and 9 RBI in six crucial games, five of them victories, as the Royals closed the gap and won the division title at the end. He was MVP of the 1985 playoffs against the Toronto Blue Jays, with an incredible Game 3. With KC down in the series two games to none, Brett went 4-for-4, homering in his first two at bats against Doyle Alexander, and doubled to the same spot in right field in his third at bat, leading the Royals' comeback. Brett then batted .370 in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals including a four-hit performance in Game 7. The Royals again rallied from a 3-1 deficit to become World Series Champions for the first time in Royals history. CANNOTANSWER
Yankees manager Billy Martin cited to the umpires a rule that stated that any foreign substance on a bat could extend no further than 18 inches from the knob.
George Howard Brett (born May 15, 1953) is an American former professional baseball player who played 21 seasons, primarily as a third baseman, in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Kansas City Royals.

Brett's 3,154 career hits are second most by any third baseman in major league history (after Adrian Beltre's 3,166) and rank 18th all-time. He is one of four players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average (the others being Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Stan Musial). He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 on the first ballot and is the only player in MLB history to win a batting title in three different decades. He was also a member of the Royals' 1985 World Series victory over the St. Louis Cardinals.

Brett was named the Royals' interim hitting coach in 2013 on May 30, but stepped down from the position on July 25 in order to resume his position of vice president of baseball operations.

Early life
Born in Glen Dale, West Virginia, Brett was the youngest of four sons of a sports-minded family which included Ken, the second oldest, a major league pitcher who pitched in the 1967 World Series at age 19. Brothers John (eldest) and Bobby had brief careers in the minor leagues. Although his three older brothers were born in Brooklyn, George was born in the northern panhandle of West Virginia.

Jack and Ethel Brett then moved the family to the Midwest and three years later to El Segundo, California, a suburb of Los Angeles, just south of Los Angeles International Airport. George grew up hoping to follow in the footsteps of his three older brothers. He graduated from El Segundo High School in 1971 and was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the second round (29th overall) of the  baseball draft. He was high school teammates with pitcher Scott McGregor.       He lived in Mission Hills, Kansas when he moved to the Midwest.

Playing career

Minor leagues
Brett began his professional baseball career as a shortstop, but had trouble going to his right defensively and was soon shifted to third base. As a third baseman, his powerful arm remained an asset, and he remained at that spot for more than 15 years. Brett's minor league stops were with the Billings Mustangs for the Rookie-level Pioneer League in 1971, the San Jose Bees of the Class A California League  in 1972, and the Omaha Royals of the Class AAA American Association in 1973, batting .291, .274, and .284, respectively.

Kansas City Royals (1973–1993)

1973
The Royals promoted Brett to the major leagues on August 2, 1973, when he played in 13 games and was 5 for 40 (.125) at age 20.

1974
Brett won the starting third base job in 1974, but struggled at the plate until he asked for help from Charley Lau, the Royals' batting coach. Spending the All-Star break working together, Lau taught Brett how to protect the entire plate and cover up some holes in his swing that experienced big-league pitchers were exploiting. Armed with this knowledge, Brett developed rapidly as a hitter, and finished the year with a .282 batting average in 113 games.

1975–1979
Brett topped the .300 mark for the first time in 1975, hitting .308 and leading the league in hits and triples. He then won his first batting title in 1976 with a .333 average. The four contenders for the batting title that year were Brett and Royals teammate Hal McRae, and Minnesota Twins teammates Rod Carew and Lyman Bostock. In dramatic fashion, Brett went 2 for 4 in the final game of the season against the Twins, beating out his three rivals, all playing in the same game. His lead over second-place McRae was less than .001. Brett won the title when a fly ball dropped in front of Twins left fielder Steve Brye, bounced on the Royals Stadium AstroTurf and over Brye's head to the wall; Brett circled the bases for an inside-the-park home run. McRae, batting just behind Brett in the line up, grounded out and Brett won his first batting title.

From May 8 through May 13, 1976, Brett had three or more hits in six consecutive games, a major league record. A month later, he was on the cover of Sports Illustrated for a feature article, and made his first of 13 All-Star teams. The Royals won the first of three straight American League West Division titles, beginning a great rivalry with the New York Yankees—whom they faced in the American League Championship Series each of those three years. In the fifth and final game of the 1976 ALCS, Brett hit a three-run homer in the top of the eighth inning to tie the score at six—only to see the Yankees' Chris Chambliss launch a solo shot in the bottom of the ninth to give the Yankees a 7–6 win. Brett finished second in American League MVP voting to Thurman Munson.

A year later, Brett emerged as a power hitter, clubbing 22 home runs, as the Royals headed to another ALCS. He is shown in archive footage batting against the New York Yankees in Game Two of those playoffs in the 2007 television miniseries The Bronx is Burning. In Game 5 of the 1977 ALCS, following an RBI triple, Brett got into an altercation with Graig Nettles which ignited a bench-clearing brawl.

In , Brett batted .294 (the only time between 1976 and  in which he did not bat at least .300) in helping the Royals win a third consecutive AL West title. However, Kansas City once again lost to the Yankees in the ALCS, but not before Brett hit three home runs off Catfish Hunter in Game Three, becoming the second player to hit three home runs in an LCS game (Bob Robertson was the first, having done so in Game two of the 1971 NLCS).

Brett followed with a successful 1979 season, in which he finished third in AL MVP voting. He became the sixth player in league history to have at least 20 doubles, triples and homers all in one season (42–20–23) and led the league in hits, doubles and triples while batting .329, with an on-base percentage of .376 and a slugging percentage of .563.

1980
All these impressive statistics were just a prelude to , when Brett won the American League MVP and batted .390, a modern record for a third baseman. Brett's batting average was at or above .400 as late in the season as September 19, and the country closely followed his quest to bat .400 for an entire season, a feat which has not been accomplished since Ted Williams in .

Brett's 1980 batting average of .390 is second only to Tony Gwynn's  average of .394 (Gwynn played in 110 games and had 419 at-bats in the strike-shortened season, compared to Brett's 449 at bats in 1980) for the highest single season batting average since 1941. Brett also recorded 118 runs batted in, while appearing in just 117 games; it was the first instance of a player averaging one RBI per game (in more than 100 games) since Walt Dropo thirty seasons prior. He led the American League in both slugging and on-base percentage.

Brett started out slowly, hitting only .259 in April. In May, he hit .329 to get his season average to .301. In June, the 27-year-old third baseman hit .472 (17–36) to raise his season average to .337, but played his last game for a month on June 10, not returning to the lineup until after the All-Star Break on July 10.

In July, after being off for a month, he played in 21 games and hit .494 (42–85), raising his season average to .390. Brett started a 30-game hitting streak on July 18, which lasted until he went 0–3 on August 19 (the following night he went 3-for-3). During those 30 games, Brett hit .467 (57–122). His high mark for the season came a week later, when Brett's batting average was at .407 on August 26, after he went 5-for-5 on a Tuesday night in Milwaukee. He batted .430 for the month of August (30 games), and his season average was at .403 with five weeks to go. For the three hot months of June, July, and August 1980, George Brett played in 60 American League games and hit .459 (111–242), most of it after a return from a monthlong injury. For these 60 games he had 69 RBIs and 14 home runs.

Brett missed another 10 days in early September and hit just .290 for the month. His average was at .400 as late as September 19, but he then had a 4 for 27 slump, and the average dipped to .384 on September 27, with a week to play. For the final week, Brett went 10-for-19, which included going 2 for 4 in the final regular season game on October 4. His season average ended up at .390 (175 hits in 449 at-bats = .389755), and he averaged more than one RBI per game.  Brett led the league in both on-base percentage (.454) and slugging percentage (.664) on his way to capturing 17 of 28 possible first-place votes in the MVP race. Since Al Simmons also batted .390 in 1931 for the Philadelphia Athletics, the only higher averages subsequent to 1931 were by Ted Williams of the Red Sox (.406 in 1941) and Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres (.394 in the strike-shortened 1994 season).

More importantly, the Royals won the American League West, and would face the Eastern champion Yankees in the ALCS.

1980 postseason
During the 1980 post-season, Brett led the Royals to their first American League pennant, sweeping the playoffs in three games from the rival Yankees who had beaten K.C. in the 1976, 1977 and 1978 playoffs. During Game 2 of the 1980 ALCS, Willie Randolph was on second base in the top of the eighth with two outs and the Royals up by just one run. Bob Watson hit a ball to the left field corner of Royals Stadium. The ball bounced right to Willie Wilson, but Wilson was not known for having a great arm, and third base coach Mike Ferraro waved Randolph home. Wilson overthrew U L Washington, the cut-off man, but Brett was in position behind him to catch the ball, then throw to Darrell Porter, who tagged out Randolph in a slide. TV cameras captured a furious George Steinbrenner fuming immediately after the play. The Royals won 3–2. Brett claimed after the game that he had deliberately positioned himself to cut off the throw in case Washington missed it, but Tommy John of the Yankees disagreed, thinking that if Brett had been backing up Washington, he would have been between shortstop and home plate, not over behind third base. Either way, he was in the perfect position to throw out Randolph. In Game 3, Brett hit a ball well into the third deck of Yankee Stadium off Yankees closer Goose Gossage. Gossage's previous pitch had been timed at 97 mph, leading ABC broadcaster Jim Palmer to say, "I doubt if he threw that ball 97 miles an hour."  A moment later Palmer was given the actual reading of 98. "Well, I said it wasn't 97", Palmer replied.  Brett then hit .375 in the 1980 World Series, but the Royals lost in six games to the Philadelphia Phillies. During the Series, Brett made headlines after leaving Game 2 in the 6th inning due to hemorrhoid pain. Brett had minor surgery the next day, and in Game 3 returned to hit a home run as the Royals won in 10 innings 4–3. After the game, Brett was famously quoted "...my problems are all behind me".  In 1981 he missed two weeks of spring training to have his hemorrhoids removed.

Pine Tar Incident

On July 24, 1983, with the Royals playing against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, in the top of the ninth inning with two out, Brett hit a go-ahead two-run homer off of Goose Gossage to put the Royals up 5–4. After the home run, Yankees manager Billy Martin cited to the umpires a rule, stating that any foreign substance on a bat could extend no further than 18 inches from the knob. The umpires measured the amount of pine tar, a legal substance used by hitters to improve their grip, on Brett's bat; the pine tar extended about 24 inches. The home plate umpire, Tim McClelland, signaled Brett out, ending the game as a Yankees win. Enraged, Brett charged out of the dugout directly toward McClelland, and had to be physically restrained by two umpires and Royals manager Dick Howser.

The Royals protested the game, which was upheld by American League president Lee MacPhail, who ruled that the bat should have been excluded from future use, but the home run should not have been nullified. Amid much controversy, the game was resumed on August 18, 1983, from the point of Brett's home run, and ended with a Royals win.

1985
In 1985, Brett had another brilliant season in which he helped propel the Royals to their second American League Championship. He batted .335 with 30 home runs and 112 RBI, finishing in the top 10 of the league in 10 different offensive categories. Defensively, he won his only Gold Glove, which broke Buddy Bell's six-year run of the award, and finished second in American League MVP voting to Don Mattingly. In the final week of the regular season, he went 9-for-20 at the plate with 7 runs, 5 homers, and 9 RBI in six crucial games, five of them victories, as the Royals closed the gap and won the division title at the end. He was MVP of the 1985 playoffs against the Toronto Blue Jays, with an incredible Game 3. With KC down in the series two games to none, Brett went 4-for-4, homering in his first two at bats against Doyle Alexander, and doubled to the same spot in right field in his third at bat, leading the Royals' comeback. Brett then batted .370 in the World Series against the St. Louis Cardinals, including a four-hit performance in Game 7. The Royals again rallied from a 3–1 deficit to become World Series champions for the first time in their history.

1986–1993

In 1988, Brett moved across the diamond to first base in an effort to reduce his chances of injury and had another top-notch season with a .306 average, 24 homers and 103 RBI. But after batting just .282 with 12 homers the next year, it looked like his career might be slowing down. He got off to a terrible start in 1990 and at one point even considered retirement. But his manager, former teammate John Wathan, encouraged him to stick it out. Finally, in July, the slump ended and Brett batted .386 for the rest of the season. In September, he caught Rickey Henderson for the league lead, and in a battle down to the last day of the season, captured his third batting title with a .329 mark. This feat made Brett the only major league player to win batting titles in three different decades.

Brett played three more seasons for the Royals, mostly as their designated hitter, but occasionally filling in for injured teammates at first base. He passed the 3,000-hit mark in 1992, though he was picked off by Angels first baseman Gary Gaetti after stepping off the base to start enjoying the moment. Brett retired after the 1993 season; in his final at-bat, he hit a single up the middle against Rangers closer Tom Henke and scored on a home run by now teammate Gaetti. His last game was also notable as being the final game ever played at Arlington Stadium.

Hall of Fame

Brett was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1999, with what was then the fourth-highest voting percentage in baseball history (98.2%), trailing only Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan, and Ty Cobb. In 2007, Cal Ripken Jr. passed Brett with 98.5% of the vote. His voting percentage was higher than all-time outfielders Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio.

Brett's No. 5 was retired by the Royals on May 14, 1994. His number was the second number retired in Royals history, preceded by former Royals manager, Dick Howser (No. 10), in 1987. It was followed by second baseman and longtime teammate Frank White's No. 20 in 1995.

He was voted the Hometown Hero for the Royals in a two-month fan vote. This was revealed on the night of September 27, 2006 in an hour-long telecast on ESPN. He was one of the few players to receive more than 400,000 votes.

Legacy

His 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history, and 16th all-time. Baseball historian Bill James regards him as the second-best third baseman of all time, trailing only his contemporary, Mike Schmidt. In 1999 he ranked Number 55 on The Sporting News''' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Brett is one of four players in MLB history to accumulate 3,000 hits, 300 home runs, and a career .300 batting average (the others are Stan Musial, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron). Most indicative of his hitting style, Brett is sixth on the career doubles list, with 665 (trailing Tris Speaker, Pete Rose, Stan Musial, Ty Cobb, and Craig Biggio).

A photo in the July 1976 edition of National Geographic showing Brett signing baseballs for fans with his team's name emblazoned across his shirt was the inspiration for New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde's 2013 song "Royals," which won the 2014 Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
Brett was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.
Brett was inducted into the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.

The Mendoza Line

George Brett is credited with popularizing the phrase the Mendoza Line, which is used to represent a sub-.200 batting average regarded as unacceptable at the Major League level. It derives from shortstop Mario Mendoza, a career .215 hitter who finished  below .200 five times in his nine seasons in the big leagues - including at .198 the year the term is claimed to have been coined by a pair of his teammates.

Brett referred to the Mendoza Line in an interview, which was picked up by ESPN baseball anchor  Chris Berman and then expanded into the world of SportsCenter.

Post-baseball activities

Following his playing career, Brett became a vice president of the Royals and has worked as a part-time coach, as a special instructor in spring training, as an interim batting coach, and as a minor league instructor dispatched to help prospects develop. He also runs a baseball equipment and glove company named Brett Bros. with Bobby and, until his death, Ken Brett. He has also lent his name to a restaurant that failed on the Country Club Plaza.

In 1992, Brett married the former Leslie Davenport, and they reside in the Kansas City suburb of Mission Hills, Kansas. The couple has three children: Jackson (named after George's father), Dylan (named after Bob Dylan), and Robin (named after fellow Hall of Famer Robin Yount of the Milwaukee Brewers).

Brett has continued to raise money for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Brett started to raise money for the Keith Worthington Chapter during his playing career in the mid-1980s.

He and his dog Charlie appeared in a PETA ad campaign, encouraging people not to leave their canine companions in the car during hot weather. He also threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Mike Napoli at the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.

On May 30, 2013, the Royals announced that Brett and Pedro Grifol would serve as batting coaches for the organization. On July 25, 2013 (the day following the 30th anniversary of the pine tar incident, the Royals announced that Brett would serve as vice president of baseball operations.

In 2015, Brett was the National Baseball Hall of Fame recipient of the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award for his support of current and former service members of the United States Military. 

Brett appeared as himself in the ABC sitcom Modern Family on March 28, 2018, alongside main cast member Eric Stonestreet, a Kansas City native and Royals fan, whose character on the show is also an avid fan.

Brett appeared as himself in the Brockmire episode "Player to Be Named Later", in which he is dating Jules (Amanda Peet), much to Brockmire's despair; in the episode "Low and Away", Jules informs Brockmire that she and her now-husband Brett are getting a divorce. Series creator Joel Church-Cooper said in a statement, "When I created a show about a fake Kansas City legend, Jim Brockmire, I thought it only appropriate to have him worship the biggest Kansas City legend of them all -- George Brett."

He is also a recurring guest on the podcast Pardon My Take'' which is presented by Barstool Sports.

Team ownership
In 1998, an investor group headed by Brett and his older brother, Bobby, made an unsuccessful bid to purchase the Kansas City Royals. Brett is the principal owner of the Tri-City Dust Devils, the Single-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres. He and his brother Bobby also co-own the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes, a Los Angeles Dodgers Single-A partner, and lead ownership groups that control the Spokane Chiefs of the Western Hockey League, the West Coast League's Bellingham Bells, and the High Desert Mavericks of the California League.

See also

 20–20–20 club
 3,000 hit club
 List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
 List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
 List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders
 List of Major League Baseball batting champions
 List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
 List of Major League Baseball career total bases leaders
 List of Major League Baseball doubles records
 List of Major League Baseball hit records
 List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise

References

Further reading

External links

, or Baseball-Almanac.com

1953 births
Living people
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Billings Mustangs players
San Jose Bees players
Omaha Royals players
Kansas City Royals players
Gold Glove Award winners
American League Most Valuable Player Award winners
American League All-Stars
American League batting champions
Major League Baseball broadcasters
Major League Baseball players with retired numbers
Major League Baseball designated hitters
Major League Baseball third basemen
Baseball players from California
Baseball players from West Virginia
Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California
American League Championship Series MVPs
El Segundo High School alumni
Silver Slugger Award winners
American sportsmen
People from Glen Dale, West Virginia
People from Mission Hills, Kansas
Pine tar is a form of tar produced by the high temperature carbonization of pine wood in anoxic conditions (dry distillation or destructive distillation). The wood is rapidly decomposed by applying heat and pressure in a closed container; the primary resulting products are charcoal and pine tar.

Pine tar consists primarily of aromatic hydrocarbons, tar acids, and tar bases. Components of tar vary according to the pyrolytic process (e.g. method, duration, temperature) and origin of the wood (e.g. age of pine trees, type of soil, and moisture conditions during tree growth). The choice of wood, design of kiln, burning, and collection of the tar can vary. Only pine stumps and roots are used in the traditional production of pine tar.

Pine tar has a long history as a wood preservative, as a wood sealant for maritime use, in roofing construction and maintenance, in soaps, and in the treatment of carbuncles and skin diseases, such as psoriasis, eczema, and rosacea. It is used in baseball to enhance the grip of a hitter's bat; it is also sometimes used by pitchers to improve their grip on the ball, in violation of the rules.

History
Pine tar has long been used in Scandinavian nations as a preservative for wood which may be exposed to harsh conditions, including outdoor furniture and ship decking and rigging.  The high-grade pine tar used in this application is often called Stockholm Tar since, for many years, a single company held a royal monopoly on its export out of Stockholm, Sweden.  It is also known as "Archangel Tar".  Tar and pitch for maritime use was in such demand that it became an important export for the American colonies, which had extensive pine forests.  North Carolinians became known as "Tar Heels."

Use
Pine tar was used as a preservative on the bottoms of traditional Nordic-style skis until modern synthetic materials replaced wood in their construction. It also helped waxes adhere, which aided such skis’ grip and glide.

Pine tar is widely used as a veterinary care product, particularly as an antiseptic and hoof care treatment for horses and cattle. It also has been used when chickens start pecking the low hen. Applying a smear of pine tar on the hens' wound acts as a natural germicidal/antibacterial agent that discourages continued attacks on the affected hen due to its foreign texture.

Pine tar is used as a softening solvent in the rubber industry, for treating and fabricating construction materials, and in special paints.

As a wood preservative
Pine tar is combined with gum turpentine and boiled linseed oil to create a wood preservative. First, a thin coat is applied using a mixture with a greater proportion of turpentine. This allows it to permeate deeper into the oakum and fibre of the wood and lets the tar seep into any pinholes and larger gaps that might be in the planks. The tar weeps out to the exterior and indicates where the boat needs the most attention. This is followed with a thicker standard mix. Such treatments, while effective, must be continually reapplied.

Weatherproofing rope
Traditionally, hemp and other natural fibers were the norm for rope production. Such rope would quickly rot when exposed to rain, and was typically tarred to preserve it. The tar would stain the hands of ship's crews, and British Navy seamen became known as "tars."

Baseball

Pine tar is applied to the handles of baseball bats to improve a batter's grip.

Rule 1.10(c) of the 2002 Official rules of Major League Baseball restricts application to the lower 18 inches of a bat. The most famous example of the rule being applied is the Pine Tar Incident, which occurred during the July 24, 1983 game between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees which resulted in a George Brett go-ahead home run in the ninth inning being nullified and the game being protested.

Pine tar is also sometimes used illegally by pitchers to improve their grip on the ball in cold weather. This is not allowed due to a regulation prohibiting the application of any foreign substance to a ball (except grip-improving baseball rubbing mud applied by the umpires).

Medical
Pine tar has historically been used for treating skin conditions, usually as an additive in cold process solid soap or lotions. Due to the high presence of phenol in the early manufacturing of pine tar, it was deemed carcinogenic. However, now much of the phenol has been removed. Pine tar was banned by the FDA along with many other ingredients categorized as over the counter drugs, due to a lack of evidence of safety and effectiveness for the specific uses named. However, clinical tests in Australia in 2017 demonstrated that the greatest risk comes from acute sensitivity for those with severe dermatological conditions, and if it comes in contact with the eyes. It is important to note that the number of positive reactions for wood tars was not significantly greater than those for other common allergens. In addition, the concentration of pine tar in topical products available in Australia is up to 2.3%, which is up to four times less than that tested in these studies.

Pine tar has been used to cover peck wounds in captive bird flocks such as chickens, to prevent continued pecking on a wound and cannibalism. Pine tar is also used in veterinary medicine as an expectorant and an antiseptic in chronic skin conditions.

See also
Coal tar
Creosote
Tarpaulin
Tarring and feathering (punishment)

References

External links

History of Pine Tar

Wood products
Food additives
Non-timber forest products
Baseball bats
Maritime culture The Pine Tar Incident (also known as the Pine Tar Game) was a controversial incident in  during an American League baseball game played between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York City on Sunday, July 24, 1983.

With his team trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning and two out, the Royals' future Hall of Fame third baseman George Brett hit a two-run home run to give his team the lead. However, Yankees manager Billy Martin, who had noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett's bat, requested that the umpires inspect his bat. The umpires ruled that the amount on the bat exceeded that allowed by rule, nullified Brett's home run, and called him out. As Brett was the third out in the ninth inning with the home team in the lead, the game ended with a Yankees win.

The Royals protested the game, upheld by American League president Lee MacPhail, who ordered that the game be continued from the point of Brett's home run. The game was resumed 25 days later on August 18, and officially ended with the Royals winning .

Incident

The visiting Royals were trailing 4–3 with two outs in the top of the ninth in a game being played at New York's Yankee Stadium.  With U L Washington on first base George Brett came to the plate and reliever Dale Murray was replaced by closer Rich "Goose" Gossage. After fouling off the first pitch to the left, Brett connected on a high strike and put it well into the right field stands for a two-run home run and a 5–4 lead.

As Brett crossed the plate, however, New York manager Billy Martin approached rookie home plate umpire Tim McClelland and requested Brett's bat be examined. Before the game, Martin and other members of the Yankees had noticed the excessive pine tar used by Brett, but Martin had chosen not to say anything until it was strategically useful to do so. Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles recalled a similar incident involving Thurman Munson in a  game against the Minnesota Twins. In Nettles' autobiography Balls, Nettles claims that he actually informed Martin of the pine tar rule, as Nettles had previously undergone the same scrutiny with his own bat while with the Twins.

With Brett watching from the dugout, McClelland and the rest of the umpiring crew, Drew Coble, Joe Brinkman, and Nick Bremigan, inspected the bat. Measuring the extent of the pine tar against the  width of home plate, they determined that the amount exceeded that allowed by Rule 1.10(c) of the Major League Baseball rule book, which read that "a bat may not be covered by such a substance more than  from the tip of the handle." At the time, such a hit was defined in the rules as "an illegally batted ball," and under the terms of the then-existing provisions of Rule 6.06, any batter who hit an illegally batted ball was automatically called out. The umpires concluded that Brett's home run was disallowed under this interpretation, and he was out, thus ending the game.

McClelland searched for Brett in the visitors' dugout, pointed at him with the bat, and signaled that he was out, handing the Yankees a 4–3 win. An enraged Brett ran out of the dugout and confronted McClelland, requiring him to be physically restrained by his manager Dick Howser, several of his teammates, and crew chief Joe Brinkman. Despite the furious protests of Brett and Howser, McClelland's ruling stood.

Protest and reversal

The Royals protested the game. Four days later, American League president Lee MacPhail upheld the Royals' protest. In explaining his decision, MacPhail noted that the "spirit of the restriction" on pine tar on bats was based not on the fear of unfair advantage, but simple economics; any contact with pine tar would discolor the ball, render it unsuitable for play, and require that it be discarded and replaced—thus increasing the home team's cost of supplying balls for a given game. MacPhail ruled that Brett had not violated the spirit of the rules nor deliberately "altered [the bat] to improve the distance factor".

MacPhail's ruling followed his own precedent established after a protest in 1975 of the September 7 game played between the Royals and the California Angels. In that game, the umpiring crew had declined to negate one of John Mayberry's home runs for excessive pine tar use. MacPhail upheld the umpires' decision with the interpretation that the intent of the rule was to prevent baseballs from being discolored during game play and that any discoloration that may have occurred to a ball leaving the ballpark did not affect the game's competitive balance.

MacPhail thus restored Brett's home run and ordered the game resumed with two outs in the top of the ninth inning with the Royals leading 5–4. However, he retroactively ejected Brett for his outburst against McClelland, along with Howser and coach Rocky Colavito for arguing with the umpires, and Royals pitcher Gaylord Perry for giving the bat to the bat boy so he could hide it in the clubhouse away from officials.

Conclusion

Strategic maneuvering
After ordering the resumption of play, MacPhail and other league officials held a strategy session to anticipate tricks the Yankees might use to prevent the game from continuing, which included the possibility the Yankees might claim Brett or U L Washington missed a base, automatically ruling them out, and, depending on which, preventing one or more runs from scoring.

Indeed, the Yankees resisted the resumption of the game, and hoped to forestall doing so until near the end of the season to agree to it, to see if the game would have an effect on the standings or should be forfeited.  Instead, the game was scheduled for 25 days after its suspension, to be resumed on August 18, 1983.

Legal battle
For the resumption of the game, the Yankees announced that they would charge non-season-ticket holders a $2.50 admission fee (equivalent to $ in ) to attend. Two lawsuits were filed against the Yankees and Bronx Supreme Court (trial court) Justice Orest Maresca issued an injunction, also requested by the Yankees, preventing the game from being resumed until the lawsuits were litigated. Maresca also cited the Yankees' expressed concerns about security problems resulting from confusion over admission to the game.

That injunction was immediately appealed by the American League and was overturned by Supreme Court Appellate Division Justice Joseph Sullivan. The Royals, who were in flight during that day's legal battles, did not know that the game would be played until they arrived at Newark Airport.

The Yankees finally agreed to allow admission for the game's conclusion to anybody with a ticket stub from the July 24 game at no additional charge.

Resumption of play
August 18 had been a scheduled off-day for both teams.  The Royals landed at Newark Airport in New Jersey.  Brett did not accompany the team.  Instead, he departed directly for Baltimore, where the Royals were scheduled to play the next day—although other sources indicate Brett waited for the rest of the team, passing the time playing hearts.

The game was resumed from the point of Brett's home run, with about 1,200 fans in attendance.  A still-furious Martin made what some initially construed as a mere symbolic protest of continuing the game by putting ace starter Ron Guidry in center field and first baseman Don Mattingly at second base. Actually, the Gold Glove fielding Mattingly was replacing the second baseman from the July 24 game, Bert Campaneris, who was injured, and Guidry replaced original center-fielder Jerry Mumphrey, who had been traded in between (on August 10) to the Houston Astros.  With Mattingly set to lead off the bottom of the ninth, the move allowed the substitution of another powerful batter to play first base, and made the Yankees' top starter available to pitch if needed, all while avoiding "wast[ing] a possible pinch hitter or runner."

Mattingly, a lefty, became a rare Major League southpaw second baseman; no left-hander had played second base or shortstop in a big-league game since Cleveland Indians left-handed pitcher Sam McDowell was switched from pitcher to second base for one batter in a game in  against the Washington Senators in order to avoid facing right-handed Senators slugger Frank Howard.

Base touching statement

Before the first pitch to Hal McRae (who followed Brett in the lineup), Yankee pitcher George Frazier threw the first ball to first base to challenge Brett's home run on the grounds that Brett had not touched first base. Umpire Tim Welke (given incorrectly in some sources as Tim McClelland, the original home plate umpire) called safe, even though he had not officiated the July 24 game and seen Brett touch the bases. Frazier then threw to second, claiming that the base was touched by neither Brett nor U L Washington, the other player scoring on the home run, but umpire Dave Phillips signaled safe.

Martin went on the field to protest, and Phillips, chief of the new crew, pulled out a notarized statement, produced by MacPhail's administrative assistant Bob Fishel, signed by all four umpires from July 24 indicating that Brett had touched every base. Fishel had anticipated that Martin would protest the base touching and the umpires' personal knowledge of it.

Martin claimed to be surprised by the statement because he had spoken by telephone to the first base umpire from July 24, Drew Coble, who had said that he wasn't looking at first base when Brett had circled first base. As he exited, the umpires announced that the game was being played under protest by the Yankees.

Resumption of play
Frazier struck out Hal McRae to end the top of the ninth, 25 days after the inning began. Royals' closer Dan Quisenberry retired New York in order for the save - Mattingly flying to center, Roy Smalley flying to left, and Oscar Gamble (pinch hitting for Ron Guidry) grounded to second - preserving the Royals' 5–4 win.

The loss placed the Yankees in fifth place, three and a half games out of first. Neither team advanced to the postseason.

Quisenberry gained his league-leading 33rd save, while Mattingly lost a 25-game hitting streak.

Aftermath
The bat is currently on display in the Baseball Hall of Fame, where it has been since 1987. During a broadcast of Mike & Mike in the Morning, ESPN analyst Tim Kurkjian stated that Brett used the bat for a few games after the incident until being cautioned that the bat would be worthless if broken. Brett sold the bat to famed collector and then-partial owner of the Yankees, Barry Halper, for $25,000 (equivalent to $ in ), had second thoughts, repurchased the bat for the same amount, and then donated the bat to the Hall of Fame.

The home-run ball was caught by journalist Ephraim Schwartz, who sold it and his game ticket stub to Halper for $500 (equivalent to $ in ) plus 12 Yankees tickets. Halper also acquired the signed business card of Justice Orest V. Maresca, who had issued the injunction, and the can of Oriole Pine Tar Brett had used on the bat. Gossage later signed the pine-tar ball, "Barry, I threw the fucking thing".
The winning pitcher for the Royals was reliever Mike Armstrong, who went 10–7 that year in 58 appearances, notching career highs in wins and games. Armstrong said in a 2006 interview that, as the Royals were leaving for the airport after the resumed game, an angry Yankees fan threw a brick from an overpass at Kansas City's bus, cracking its windshield.

"It was wild to go back to New York and play these four outs in a totally empty stadium," Armstrong said in 2006. "I'm dressed in the uniform, and nobody's there."

Before a game against the Yankees at Kauffman Stadium on May 5, 2012, the Royals gave each fan who attended the game a replica baseball bat designed to look like the one Brett used with the pine tar.

As part of the Royals' fiftieth season in 2018, before a game against the Yankees at Kauffman Stadium on May 19, the Royals gave 18,000 fans who attended the game a George Brett Pine Tar bobblehead to celebrate the incident and Royals victory. It depicts Brett, after his home run was nullified, rushing at the umpires in anger.

In , Major League Baseball amended the official rules with a comment on rule 1.10(c) clarifying the consequences of using excessive pine tar on a bat. The comment codifies the interpretation of the rule issued by McPhail in his reversal:

If no objections are raised prior to a bat’s use, then a violation of Rule 1.10(c) on that play does not nullify any action or play on the field and no protests of such play shall be allowed.

Scoring

In popular culture
In 1983, folk and "hillbilly" artist Red River Dave McEnery released "The Pine-Tarred Bat (The Ballad of George Brett)" on Longhorn Records.

Country music artist C. W. McCall dedicated the 1985 song "Pine Tar Wars" to the event, composing a lyric that features an accurate telling of the relevant facts of the story. The lyric is strongly critical of Billy Martin, referring to him as "Tar Baby Billy".

See also

References

Further reading
  "The bat boy tells his version of the pine-tar tale involving George Brett and the Yankees." 
 The radio version of the story, featuring an interview with the batboy, Merritt Riley.

External links
 Box score of the Pine Tar Game at Baseball Almanac
 Box score of the Pine Tar Game at Retrosheet
 The Infamous Pine Tar Incident – Video at MLB.com
 Baseball's Best: The Pine Tar Game – Video at MLB.com
 Pine Tar in Baseball at bestbaseballreviews.com

1983 in sports in New York City
1983 Major League Baseball season
Kansas City Royals
Major League Baseball controversies
Major League Baseball games
New York Yankees
Yankee Stadium (1923)
July 1983 sports events in the United States