Free Republic

The image remains one of baseball's most iconic snapshots, as fresh in the minds of New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals fans today as it was in 1983. On July 24, 1983, with two outs in the ninth and U.L. Washington on first base, Kansas City All-Star third baseman George Brett homered off New York closer Goose Gossage, giving the Royals a 5-4 lead. But while Brett celebrated in the Yankee Stadium dugout following his round-tripper, Yankees manager Billy Martin walked to home plate and informed umpire Tim McClelland that Brett's bat was covered with more pine tar than...

A mini-controversy appears to be brewing after Fox cameras caught Royals catcher Salvador Perez with some kind of brown substance on his shinguards. Perez didn’t speak to reporters after the game and manager Ned Yost correctly pointed out that there is nothing wrong with the catcher — or any position player — having the substance, believed to be pine tar, there. “It’s not illegal,” Yost said. “I don’t know what it was. It was brown. It’s not illegal for a catcher to have it on his shinguard. It’s illegal for a pitcher.”