Daily News columnist Filip Bondy's new book dips into infamous George Brett ... - New York Daily News
"The Pine Tar Game,” a new book by Daily News columnist Filip Bondy from Scribner, details the historically wacky game between the Yankees and Kansas City Royals that took place at the Old Stadium on July 24, 1983. After George Brett’s... Here are some excerpts dealing with the incident and with George Steinbrenner’s reaction — after American League president (and former Yankee GM) Lee MacPhail restored Brett’s homer, eventually costing the Yankees the game:. George Brett knew about the pine tar, and he had a fairly good notion about the rule. Despite some hedging that day and in years to come, Brett understood full well that his precious, seven-grain bat was in violation of the pine tar rule. Dean Vogelaar, the Royals’ public relations director at the time, was at the batting cage with Brett just days earlier in Toronto, before the Royals headed to New York for their next series. “I’d probably remember this moment better than George,” Vogelaar said. He showed me the pine tar on it. He was going to keep using it, he said, but had some concern about it. He wondered how much longer he would be able to get away with it. ”. RELATED: TIM MCCLELLAND, UMP OF INFAMOUS PINE TAR GAME, RETIRES. Umpires had warned him, and there was no hiding the fact that Brett was a complete pine tar mess, Exhibit A in a baseball court of law. Source: www.nydailynews.com
