Revisiting George Brett’s Pine Tar incident with then-Royals pitcher Bud Black
39 years ago today, the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees faced each other in what became one of MLB’s most infamous incidents: George Brett’s Pine Tar incident. Rockies manager Bud Black was the Royals starting pitcher that day.
MILWAUKEE – Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black loves baseball history. He brings it up with his players, coaches, and will often mention it with the media, even without provocation.
For example, in the series before the All-Star break, he quizzed media members on who the “Mendoza Line” was named for (Mario Mendoza, who Black spent time with in the Seattle Mariners organization in the late 70s and 80s. The Mendoza Line is also known as hitting .200, but Mendoza actually hit .214 in his MLB career).
Black is known for his great memory too. For example, he knew that he gave three home runs up in his first appearance at Wrigley Field while with the Giants in 1991 (he also knew he gave two to Luis Salazar and one to backup catcher Hector Villanueva).
Sunday is the anniversary of the Pine Tar Incident, when Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett was called out by umpires after hitting a two-out, ninth-inning home run to take the lead against the New York Yankees because they deemed that he had pine tar too far up his bat.
Black happened to be the Royals starting pitcher that day and this weekend while the Rockies were in Milwaukee, he told FanSided all about that day, remembering it as if it was yesterday.
Bud Black reflects on the George Brett Pine Tar Incident against Yankees
Black was in his third season in the major leagues and his first as a full-time starting pitcher in 1983. He started the season at Triple-A Omaha before being called up to the majors in late May.
Entering his July 24 start at Yankee Stadium against the New York Yankees, Black had a good season. In the majors, he had a 4-3 record with a 3.39 ERA in 11 starts, averaging 6.2 innings per start. He had been on a roll as, in his last three starts, he averaged nearly eight innings per start with an ERA of 2.70.
On Sunday, July 24, though, he faced a tough lineup. That lineup included a future Hall of Famer (Dave Winfield) and many others who were All-Stars that year or in years prior (Bert Campaneris, Don Baylor, Graig Nettles, and Lou Piniella, among others). Black wasn’t as sharp as he allowed seven hits and four earned runs in six innings. Three of the four runs came in his final inning.
He left the game with a 4-4 tie. It stayed that way until the ninth inning when, against future Hall of Famer Goose Gossage, future Hall of Famer George Brett hit a home run with two outs in the ninth inning. It was a towering shot to right field.
Black takes it from there:
"“Personally for me, I was in the training room icing my arm,” Black told FanSided. (Later, Black would change to putting heat on his arm after Hall of Famer Bob Feller told him he thought heat was better than ice.) “I was with (reliever) Mike Armstrong (who came on in relief of Black). So when George hit the homer, I’m in the training room, (watching on a) little black and white TV at old Yankee Stadium. We’re giving high fives and George rose to the occasion all the time. I saw (Yankees manager) Billy (Martin) come out (of the dugout) and (Yankees third baseman Graig) Nettles was starting to clap with his glove. (The camera crew) gets panning to George and back to the umpires and we go ‘oh, s***. Something bad is going to happen.’ Then, (home plate umpire Tim) McClelland walked over to our dugout and gives the out sign.”"
Then, George Brett goes insane. He sprints out of the dugout, yelling and screaming. He gets so wound up that umpire crew chief Joe Brinkman (who was in his first season as a crew chief) has to put him in a choke hold while pulling back.
On the Yankees TV feed (at about 2:16:51 in this YouTube video from MLB), it cuts to Gaylord Perry (another future Hall of Famer) and outfielder Leon Roberts running into the clubhouse with the bat. The umpires noticed this and they came after them.
"“What was crazy was, afterward, that the umpires kept looking for the bat,” Black said. “They go ‘where’s the bat?’ Gaylord Perry and Leon Roberts took the bat and took it up into our clubhouse. And the umpires actually came to our clubhouse, which is rare. So I’m in the clubhouse and all of a sudden, I see umpires coming into the clubhouse saying ‘where’s the bat?’ and I say ‘what bat?’ We’re all saying ‘what bat?’ The umpires are getting upset, saying ‘where’s the f****** bat’ and we’re all saying ‘what bat are you talking about?’ Ultimately, they got the bat but it was sort of funny to see umpires going through the clubhouse trying to get the bat.”"
The Royals and their late manager Dick Howser protested the game. The game took place on a Sunday. By the following Thursday (July 28), the out was overturned and the Royals’ protest was successful. This was only the 13th time in MLB history that a protest was successful and play was allowed to resume from there.
At the time, the American League (where the Royals and Yankees played) and the National League had separate offices. Those offices reported to the MLB Commissioner (the AL and NL offices were dissolved into the central MLB office after the 1999 season). With this practice too, the two leagues had separate umpires which didn’t integrate until after the 1999 season.
So, on July 28, American League President Lee MacPhail (who passed away in 2012 at the age of 95) overturned the “out” call because the pine tar “didn’t increase distance potential.”
“George very rarely broke bats and that was his gamer (bat),” Black said. “For months, the pine tar just kind of ran up the barrel.”
As a result, the game would be resumed. The clubs had a mutual off day on Thursday, August 18 so it was decided that the game would be finished that day.
Black says his best memories of the situation are from when they went back to New York.
"“The best memories of that day were from when we went back,” Black said. “We went back to play (for) four outs. We flew in (to New York and) we were headed to Baltimore (after the game). We had to bring in (closer) Dan Quisenberry (who passed away from brain cancer in 1998) to get the save. The beautiful part about that was he knew he was pitching and as a closer, you never know. When you come to the park, you don’t know if you’re pitching. He knew for (three weeks) and he was nervous as hell on the plane (to New York). So you have the combination of George (Brett), who was thrown out of the game, and (others who weren’t going to play or were ejected) who got to (relax) and Quisenberry was nervous … George and the guys who didn’t have to play went to lunch in New Jersey (the Royals flew into Newark International Airport). We flew TWA (which was sold to American Airlines in 2001). Our director who did the charter, was Larry Ameche, who was a relative of Don Ameche, the actor."
But this time at Yankee Stadium was different than any other experience at Yankee Stadium because barely anybody was there.
"“We get off the bus at Yankee Stadium and nobody was there, which is the opposite of what it usually is at Yankee Stadium,” Black said. “That was weird. It was a ghost town. There were a few scattered fans. I had to go (to the stadium) because it was my day to throw on the side. We got there, we got dressed, guys went out and played catch, the Yankees did the same thing, and then ‘let’s go.’ So one of the best parts about it was the Yankees take the field and the home plate umpire says ‘play ball’ and (the Yankees) appeal to every base. ‘We think George missed first, we think George missed second, we think George missed third.’ They got to first: ‘safe’, second (base) ‘safe’, they got to third ‘safe.'”"
But there was a problem: The American League had brought in four new umpires (a completely different crew) to work the rest of the game as the previous umpiring crew of Crew Chief Joe Brinkman, Nick Bremigan, Drew Coble, and Tim McClelland (the home plate umpire who called Brett out), were traveling from Seattle to Texas.
“[B]ut we had four new umpires,” Black said. “So out comes (Yankees) manager Billy Martin. ‘How do you guys know?! You weren’t even here! How do you know that George touched all the bases?’ (Crew Chief) Davey Phillips shows an affidavit (made by one of MacPhail’s assistants out of his pocket signed by the original four umpires) saying ‘George touched every base.’ The (American League office) tried to think of everything.”
The Yankees then protested the game themselves (which was unsuccessful). The Yankees had George Frazier come on in relief of Gossage and he retired Hal McRae (the batter after Brett) for the final out of the top of the ninth inning. But since Billy Martin thought it was pointless and he was protesting the game anyways, he decided to mix up his defense.
“(Left-handed first baseman Don) Mattingly was at second base and (left-handed starting pitcher) Ron Guidry was in center field,” Black said. “(In the bottom of the ninth inning), Quisenberry retired them one, two, three. We showered real quick, got dressed, got on the bus, and to the airport. It was the damnedest thing. Then we flew to Baltimore. We were on the field for seven minutes or so.”
Since then, the MLB rules have been changed in regard to this and it’s often known as “The George Brett Rule.” In the 2021 MLB Rulebook, the rule (Rule 3.02 (c)) states:
"“The bat handle, for not more than 18 inches from its end, may be covered or treated with any material or substance to improve the grip. Any such material or substance that extends past the 18-inch limitation shall cause the bat to be removed from the game.“NOTE: If the umpire discovers that the bat does not conform to (c) above until a time during or after which the bat has been used in play, it shall not be grounds for declaring the batter out, or ejected from the game.”"
For what it’s worth, George Brett is happy to be known as “The Pine Tar Guy” as before, he was known as “The Hemorrhoids Guy.” He had to leave Game 2 of the 1980 World Series in the sixth inning after experiencing extreme hemorrhoid discomfort.
“Prior to that, I was known as the guy with the hemorrhoids in the 1980 World Series,” Brett told The New York Daily News in 2015. “Every on-deck circle I went to, from 1980 to July 24, 1983 on the road, I heard every hemorrhoids joke you could imagine. After July 25, I was the pine tar guy. So what would (you) rather be remembered as? It’s pretty simple.”