ESPN rosin experiment shows how much of a mess Max Scherzer saga is

ESPN commentator David Cone experimented with what rosin, sweat and alcohol can do to a pitcher’s hands during Sunday Night Baseball, showing how much of a mess the Max Scherzer saga is.

Last Wednesday, New York Mets starting pitcher Max Scherzer was ejected from the team’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers for use of sticky substances.

Scherzer maintained his innocence after the game, saying that rosin and sweat is what made his pitching hand sticky. Additionally, when he was told to wash his hands, he did so in front of an MLB official with rubbing alcohol.

Despite all of this, Scherzer accepted his automatic 10-game suspension, citing how it was a fight that he would not win, specifically due to the lack of a neutral arbitrator overseeing the appeal.

During ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball broadcast of the Mets’ game against the San Francisco Giants, commentator and former MLB pitcher David Cone demonstrated what rosin can do to a pitching hand. Specifically, what can happen when rosin combines with sweat, and if the pitcher washes their hand with rubbing alcohol.

ESPN’s rosin experiment shows how messy the Max Scherzer saga is

Cone points out the rubbing alcohol activates the rosin, and it creates the stickiness. Hence why the baseball dangled off of Cone’s fingers. He also said that if a pitcher uses soap and water to wash off the “clumpiness” and the rosin, then their fingers will get soft and almost prune. Cone said that washing with alcohol keeps the hands dry.

As mentioned earlier, an MLB official watched Scherzer wash his hands with alcohol and allowed him to proceed with his day at Dodger Stadium. Then, Scherzer touched a rosin bag and mixed it with sweat, and went out to pitch. He was ejected shortly afterwards when first base umpire Phil Cuzzi and crew chief Dan Bellino determined that his hand was too sticky.

Bellino said after the game to Los Angeles Times pool reporter Mike DiGiovanna that Scherzer’s hand was “the stickiest [a hand] has been since I’ve been inspecting hands, which now goes back three seasons,” and that “it was so sticky that when we touched his hand, our fingers were sticking to his hand.”

There was some similar rosin controversy prior to the Scherzer debacle. On Apr. 15, New York Yankees pitcher Domingo German was found to have rosin on his hands, and he was told by the umpire to wash his hands. When he returned, there was still some tackiness on his right pinky finger, which was caused by German touching a rosin bag in the dugout after washing his hands.

But, German wasn’t ejected, as crew chief James Hoye said they did not feel “it rose to foreign substance standard of affecting the flight, affecting his pitching.”

SNY’s Andy Martino says “with certainty” that German was told not to wash off his hands with alcohol.

Players are allowed to use rosin, but they are prohibited from placing it on their glove or uniform.

Long story short, the rosin/alcohol situation just got a whole lot messier with this experiment given during Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN.