As part of the league’s crackdown on pitchers using foreign substances to improve their grip on the baseball, MLB umpires forced Cincinnati Reds starter Graham Ashcraft to remove his wedding band.
When Ashcraft pitches, the bracelet on his left hand is hidden under his glove. On Saturday, he was forced to remove his jewelry before the Reds’ game against the Milwaukee Brewers. The umpire told him the regulation wasn’t new, but they only began enforcing it on Friday.
In a postgame interview, Ashcraft addressed the incident with the umpire, emphasizing that he was unaware that the MLB had implemented a new rule.
Here’s what Ashcraft said:
“The first base umpire comes up, checks my right hand as normal. Then he asks me to take my glove off and saw my ring. He goes, ‘You have to take your ring off. I was like, ‘No, why do I have to take my ring off? I shouldn’t have to.’ Then apparently it’s some new rule they came up with yesterday.”
An umpire asked pitcher Graham Ashcraft to take his wedding ring off of his glove hand pic.twitter.com/D5h2oFQVjA
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) June 18, 2022
Ashcraft was not going to pitch without his wedding ring but the rule states that a pitcher is barred from attaching anything to their hands.
Reds manager David Bell said he got the message informing players and managers about the rules enforcement but didn’t read it very well.
Here’s what Bell said:
“I think that helped, like the rule or not, it was something that was going to be enforced and Graham understood that after that explanation. I did a poor job of explaining it before the game. Thankfully nothing bad happened. It was nice that they just warned him and made him aware of it.”
In five innings of work, Ashcraft was tagged for six runs and eight hits. The 24-year-old is 3-1 with a 3.51 ERA and 1.17 WHIP since being promoted to the big leagues.
Sources: Dailywire, Si, Cbssports
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