The Sticky era.

[BlueInCanada]

So with Donaldson basically saying Cole is smearing all sorts of shit on his balls (baseball's that is) are we about to see another Steroid Era smackdown by the MLB?

It's almost the same thing;

1) Everyone starts juicing / Using sticky shit on the balls. 

2) MLB turns a blind eye.

3) Ratings go up because of improved batting/pitching performance.

4) Whistle blowers start taking to the media but get ignored. 

5) MLB continues to ignore it. 

6) The public starts to get disturbed over all of it 

7) The MLB does a 180 and distances itself from the players saying "We never knew this was happening!!!!? Clearly these three or four scapegoats we will ban for life were acting on their own and is a travesty to the MLB!!!? Ban ban ban ban ban!"

8) Teams find another way to exploit the game and repeat. 

It seems like every pitched suddenly got better and is clearly using something.

Shit be wild yo. 

[Virginia Giant]

Problem is this shit is so ingrained in the history of the sport, same with steroids, and is looked at so fondly in decades past that it is part of the culture and nostalgia of baseball, that MLB can't find the balance between saying "okay, we know this is going to happen here and there and it is fiun to occasionally see an umpire catch a guy with pine tar in his glove, or a nail file in his pocket - but then keeping it from becoming a part of every pitchers routine. 

Fuck the outrage culture of fans and media and put the ban hammer away.  If you get caught, you serve a couple games suspension but it isn't taken too seriously.  Same with roids and all the other shit, if a guy gets caught, he gets a brief suspension because he broke a rule, but lets stop pretending the game today is any different that 50 years ago.  Guys cheat, cheating is part of the show, it's the pretending to be outraged by it that is less than 20 years old.