St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Shildt was tossed from Wednesday’s game by umpire Jo West, while pitcher Giovanny Gallegos was ordered to change his hat after a substance was found on the bill of the hat.
Gallegos was called in relief in the 7th inning and was warming up before being West intervened with the order of changing hats; Shildt argued the call and was soon ejected.
“This is baseball’s dirty little secret, and it’s the wrong time and the wrong arena to expose it,” he said. “Here’s the deal. First of all, Gio wears the same hat all year. Hats accrue dirt. Hats accrue substances. … Did Gio have some sunscreen at some point in his career to make sure he doesn’t get some kind of melanoma? Possibly. Does he use rosin to help out? Possibly. Are these things that baseball really wants to crack down on? No.”
“The whole point of this is we’re trying to protect his pitcher, and [Shildt] got ejected,” West said.
For Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, he’s certainly no stranger to controversy, having served a one year suspension from baseball due to his role in the Houston Astros cheating scandal.
“Yesterday was kind of a tipping point, to where I think everybody’s going to have to address it”,he said. “We’re going to have to deal with whatever the fallout is. It is a topic that I think is probably openly talked about behind closed doors. People know.”
– – Quotes via KSDK Link – –
