The Pine Tar Incident
George Brett had a helluva stroke and then almost had one
Gather around, young ones. I’m about to tell you about how Major League Baseball Hall-of-Famer Billy Martin turned fellow Hall-of-Famer George Brett into a human volcano. Which is quite the turnaround because Billy Martin was famous for his eruptions.
Brett’s team, the Kansas City Royals were playing the Martin-managed New York Yankees that day. The backstory is that both teams hated each other, in a sporting sense. It wasn’t hatred like the Hatfields and the McCoys or the Montagues and the Capulets. That’s a whole other story.
The teams in the late ’70s and ’80s were perennial playoff opponents. They often met in the American League Championship Series for the right to advance to the fall classic. The World Series.
The Yankees, of course, dominated the Royals. They’d brush past them like the Royals were the weak peasant pretenders to the throne. The Royals were a folly standing in the way of the Yankees’ rightful royalty.
That was until 1980. The Kansas City team finally broke through the Yankee ramparts. They rode on the back of George Brett as he single-handedly slewed the vaunted Yankee bullpen dragons led by also Hall-of-Famer Goose Gossage. Brett homered off Gossage to put the Royals in the lead for good.
The rivalry was a constant duel for baseball supremacy. Both organizations planned accordingly to address shortcomings so that when the teams met, they would be complete and prepared.
Which leads us to the fateful day from years ago.
The game was a back-and-forth affair. The teams battled to the ninth inning with the Yankees clinging to a 4–3 lead. A Royals batter reaches base and George Brett strode confidently to the plate. Yankees’ manager Martin went to the mound and summoned his relief ace Gossage to the mound.
They met again with the game on the line. Gossage was a great fastball pitcher. Brett was a great fastball hitter. The proverbial unstoppable force against the immovable object. Something had to give.
Gossage offered a fastball and Brett swung and connected, sending the ball soaring into the seats in right field putting the Royals ahead by a run, 5–4.
But Yankees manager Billy Martin was lying in wait. Martin was a master strategizing genius. He was always multiple moves ahead of the other managers. Martin knew the rulebook better than the ones that wrote it.
After Brett had crossed the plate, Martin made his way to the umpires. An obscure rule about the length of allowable pine tar, a substance that made gripping the bat easier, was invoked.
After a lengthy discussion, the umpires ruled Brett out.
George Brett reacted like the competitor he is.
After the incident, the league ruled Brett hadn’t made a conscious attempt at circumventing the rule. They said the home run stood, and the game had to be resumed at the point of the home run.
The Royals eventually won the game. The game now lives in history and will forever be known as the Pine Tar Incident.
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