Controversy Surrounds World Series Baseballs

Controversy surrounds most sports but this season for baseball it seems to have changed the way many are thinking, and it’s not just the fans.

With the World Series underway it was interesting to note that both the pitchers and coaches from both the Dodgers and Astros complained about the world Series baseballs..

It’s not just about the liveliness, but rather that the balls used seem to be slicker than the ones used in the regular season, probable in part due to the grain of the leather.

We are told by reliable sources that a “slicker” ball makes it hard to throw a slider and that’s not to take away from the play of any pitcher.

Reflecting to game three it was noted that Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt mentions that his starter Yu Darvish mentioned that he was “unable to throw the slider in his normal manner.”

Quick to respond was the Senior VP of MLB, Peter Woodfork mentioned “the World Series balls are tested at the time of manufacturing and are made of the the same materials and to the same standards as regular season balls.”

He continued to state “the only difference is the gold stamping on the baseballs in such that they used gold stamping rather than the blue ink used during the regular season.

It’s reported that he showed two baseballs side by side, one used in game 4 and a regular season ball, to which the regular season ball had not been prepared for a game with the specialty mud that umpires or assistants rub into the balls to reduce the shine as well as the slickness.

Not just one has mentioned this fact, but rather it was noticed by Houston pitcher Justin Verlander who mentioned that “We’re in here signing (World Series) balls before the game and it’s hard to get the ink onto the balls.”

He continued “ I noticed it especially throwing a slider and it didn’t feel the same and the home run I gave up was a slider.”

He threw 17 sliders in Game 2 obtaining only one swing and a miss on the pitch and this alone equals the fewest swings and misses on his slider for any of his 36 starts this year.

Interesting to note that after a record setting regular season with the most home runs all time (6,105) the rate of home runs has shot up  25% in the World Series from one every 27.1 at-bats in the regular season to one every 17.5 at-bats in the World Series.

You make the call – Strike or Foul Ball delivered to the pitches??