The backstory of the Pine Tar Game
It's About The Money - A New York Yankees Blog —
Sorry I've been so bogged down today but I couldn't let the day pass without posting this, from ESPN's Tim Kurkjian: During the confusion, Brett said, "[teammate] Gaylord Perry wrestled the bat away from McClelland and started running toward the dugout. He handed it off to [teammate] Steve Renko, who said, 'What the hell am I doing with this?' He handed it off to someone else, who was running with it through the dugout, then up the runway to the clubhouse. Security people were running after him. They yelled into their radios, 'Don't let that bat out of your sight!' The policeman who guarded the visiting clubhouse wouldn't open the door for the ...
George Brett's pine tar incident turns 25 years old today
Big League Stew —
He won a World Series, was inducted into the Hall of Fame and got a case of the hemorrhoids at the worst possible time. Still, George Brett is best known for his wonderfully bad-ass reaction to "The Pine Tar Incident," (video) which happened at Yankee Stadium on this day a quarter-century ago. As one might imagine, a number of newspapers marked the anniversary with an article. Here are the best excerpts from a few of them: Sam Mellinger, KC Star: It was 25 years ago today that Brett used his overly pine-tarred bat to hit a home run in the ninth inning off Gossage. You ...
Royal Blue Grit
Blue Collar Baseball —
The Kansas City Royals will end their 2008 season today after an absolutely stunning bout of September baseball. The Royals are on a five game winning streak and have come away as the victors in 13 of their last 15 games. Kansas City also has an eight game road winning streak - that's the most for the Royals since 1977. An 18-7 September record for the 2008 Royals matches a mark set by the 1985 World Series Champions. Royals teams from the late-1970s into the mid-1980s were personified by George Brett. The epitome of an all-out gritty ballplayer. Brett would take on anyone, even the New York Yankees (i.e. the pine tar game). I'm also proud to say ...
7/24/1983 - The Pine Tar Incident
Inhistoric —
It was the top of the ninth at Yankee Stadium. With two out and a man on first, Royals third baseman George Brett was at the plate, with New York closer Goose Gossage on the mound. In the matchup between two future Hall of Famers, Brett got the upper-hand, hammering a pitch into the right field bleachers. The home run gave the Royals a 5-4 lead... or so it seemed. Yankees third baseman Graig Nettles had noticed earlier in the year that Brett used a large amount of pine tar on his bat (as many hitters did to grip the bat better). Nettles was aware of an obscure baseball rule forbidding no more pine tar on a bat than the width of the plate ...


