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COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — Baseball Hall of Famer George Brett is his jovial self, laughing and smiling while reflecting on his rage 40 years ago today in the infamous yet celebrated Pine Tar Game against the New York Yankees.

On July 24, 1983, with two outs in the ninth inning and his visiting Kansas City Royals trailing, Brett hit a two-run home run off fellow future Hall of Famer Rich “Goose” Gossage, vaulting the Royals into a 5-4 lead. New York manager Billy Martin immediately challenged the homer on the grounds that the pine tar on Brett’s bat covered more than the allowable 18 inches.

After the umpires huddled and measured the bat’s pine tar against the 17-inch width of home plate, rookie ump Tim McClelland invalidated Brett’s blast, pointed the bat at the Royals’ dugout and called Brett out, unleashing the ire of the Royals’ third baseman, who stormed back onto the field. The chaotic scene, vivid for the ages, painted a new perception of Brett and altered the annals of baseball.

Security confiscated the bat from the Royals after K.C. pitcher Gaylord Perry had taken it from McClelland. It was delivered to the office of American League president Lee MacPhail. Four days after Brett had circled the bases, MacPhail upheld Kansas City’s protest, overturned the on-field decision, reinstated the homer, negated the Yankees’ 4-3 win and ordered the game replayed from the moment of the controversy. MacPhail said that although the umpires’ interpretation of Rule 1.10 (b) was “technically defensible,” it was “not in accord with the intent or spirit of the rules.” The rulebook provision was meant to avoid dirtying too many baseballs, not to affect the outcome of a play or game.

On Aug. 18 in the Bronx, it took 12 minutes for the Royals and Yankees to replay the end of the game from the moment of controversy, in front of about 1,200 fans (nearly 34,000 had attended July 24). The Royals won 5-4 without Brett, as MacPhail had retroactively ejected Brett for his outburst. That offseason, Major League Baseball changed the rule, memorializing the explosive events as a unique chapter in the sport’s history.

Brett, who played for the Royals during his entire MLB career from 1973 to 1993, is the only man to win batting titles in three decades. He was an All-Star for 13 consecutive seasons, won the AL Most Valuable Player Award in 1980 and was a World Series champion and Gold Glove winner in 1985. The lefty’s .390 batting average in 1980 remains the second highest (behind Tony Gwynn’s .394 in 1994) since Ted Williams hit .406 in 1941. Now in his 31st season as the Royals’ vice president of baseball operations, Brett was a first-ballot Hall of Fame electee in 1999.

Brett, 70, in Cooperstown for the annual induction weekend, spoke Friday about the pine tar episode, his unforgettable tirade and how the bat ended up in the museum here that displays his and Gossage’s Hall of Fame plaques. Here are excerpts from that conversation, which has been edited for clarity and length.

How would you complete a sentence that starts with ‘July 24, 1983?’

July 24, 1983, I remember distinctly I was in the Bronx and it was a Sunday day game. We were playing the team that I despise the most, the New York Yankees, and they despise me. And I’m forever known as the “pine tar guy.” Goose and I have had a lot of laughs over that ever since he got in the Hall of Fame. I never said one word to Goose Gossage playing against him, playing with him and All-Star Games — never said one word. And then we met on a golf course and played golf, and now we’re best buds. I love him.

What were you known for before that day?

Nineteen-eighty was the summer that I almost hit .400 and obviously a lot of stress, and we finally beat the Yankees in the ’80 playoffs. All of a sudden, after beating the Yankees, I didn’t feel good. I felt a really bad pain inside me, basically, and it turned out I had internal and external hemorrhoids. And it seemed like everywhere I went after that, getting loose before your at-bat, all the idiots that would be sitting by the on-deck circle would make jokes. You never turn around. I just ignored it. But then, July 24, 1983, came around and then I was the pine tar guy. Seriously, what would you rather be remembered for? Hitting a home run off Goose Gossage in the ninth inning to win a ballgame, or being the guy with hemorrhoids in the World Series?

How many times have you seen the video of that day and what do you take from it when you do see it?

I see it quite a bit. I don’t pull it up on YouTube, I don’t do that. I’m not one of those guys who’ll watch it over and over again, but just by chance, watching TV and seeing clips of it, I’ve probably seen it 100 times. Showed it to my kids a whole bunch of times when they were young. I wanted to see the look on their faces when I got mad, and I told them you better never make me this mad, and they never did.

When you watch that video, what regretful memories do you have?

The one thing I regret is I wish I wouldn’t have waved my hands that much when I was running out. It’s funny, some of the Royals’ minor league affiliates will do a bobble head and draw fans in, and they had George Brett bobblehead night one day in Lexington, Kentucky — one of our A-League teams back in the days — and instead of the bobble head moving around, the arms went up and down. I thought that was kind of good. But no, I have no regrets at all. None whatsoever. I mean, I played to win. I would do whatever it took to win a ballgame, and then when you do something as heroic as what I did, two outs in the ninth inning, hit a home run off Goose Gossage, a Hall of Fame pitcher, and you think you’ve won the game and all of a sudden they say you cheated — obviously, I didn’t cheat. Didn’t feel like I had to cheat, I thought I was a pretty good player. But for them to take that away was frustrating. Ironically, a teammate of mine, [Hall of Famer] Gaylord Perry, who liked memorabilia, thought it’d be cool to steal the bat from the umpire, so he steals it.

What do you think of where the bat is now?

It’s right where it belongs, it belongs in the Hall of Fame. At one time, I did sell it. I was getting all these offers from people to buy it. Barry Halper, collector, part owner of the New York Yankees, I sold it to him for $25,000. About two weeks later, I came to my senses and I said, “No, Barry, I can’t do that. Here’s your $25,000 back.” I got the bat back and I gave it to the Hall of Fame. It’s a piece of baseball history and it’s gonna stay in here the rest of its life. One thing I do regret is I used that bat again. I cleaned it all up. The bat was a really good bat. It was an eight- or nine-grainer, the least amount of grain on the bat is usually where the heart of the wood is. And I’d used that bat for probably a month. Lee MacPhail shipped it back to us, we were in Detroit when I got the bat back, playing the Tigers. And the first thing I did is I got some rubbing alcohol and I cleaned off the bat to 18 inches and drew a red line around the bat. I used it for two or three days again and Gaylord comes up to me and says, “George, you can’t use that bat, it’s too valuable. If you break it, it’s not worth anything.” So I took it out of play and that’s when I got rid of it. But I wish I would have kept the bat in its original state. I think it would be better for everybody to see what it was. I think the rule is 18 inches and my pine tar, I think, was 23. So it’s 5 inches over the limit. But here’s the kicker, I used a bat that was unfinished, it was raw ash — a lot of people put enamel finish on it or some type of shellac or something. I just used raw wood. And so the pine tar itself, I don’t think was up that high. It just kind of grew in the grain because there was no protection, there was no varnish on the bat or anything like that. So it was black going up there, up to the end of the bat. But it really wasn’t pine tar, it was just kind of growing into the wood.

Let’s go back to the game itself. What do you remember about the situation and your emotions when you hit the home run, right up until the home run was — at least for the moment — nullified?

They had a guy come in, [Dale] Murray, who had a good sinker, threw a really heavy ball. And he was cruising along, pitched three innings, did a great job. And then U.L. Washington got a base hit off him and they brought Goose in to face me. And I would rather face a guy that threw like Goose. I had a lot of at bats off Goose. I don’t think he ever threw me a slider. I don’t think he ever threw a changeup in his life. And when he faced Hal McRae, Amos Otis and those guys, he would throw sliders, but he always threw me fastballs. And I just said, “Hey, you know, you got to just look fastball.” And so I looked fastball and the next thing you know, hit a home run. I was excited, ran around the bases, gave us the lead in the top of the ninth inning, there was two outs. And the next thing you know, I’m crossing home plate and I saw Billy Martin out there, and I’m going, “What the hell’s he doing out there?” By the time I get to the dugout, I’m sitting there next to Vida Blue, I think, and Frank White was sitting close to me. And Frank said, “You know, they might call you out for using too much pine tar.” And I said, “I’ve never heard of that before. Too much pine tar. What do you mean?” He said, “Well, they called John Mayberry out on that.” (Editor’s note: In a 1975 game, Mayberry’s bat was inspected for excess pine tar after he hit two home runs for the Royals, but the umpires didn’t penalize him and an Angels protest was denied by MacPhail.) And I go, “Well, if they call me out for using too much pine tar, I’ll run out and kill one of those SOBs.” And sure enough, as soon as I said that, Tim McClelland walks over and points at me and says, “You’re out.” I mean, obviously, I wasn’t gonna hit him. I looked like a madman coming out. I think everything kind of got a little more dramatic than it should have. Because [umpire] Joe Brinkman got behind me and started pulling me back, and I was trying to get away and he had a chokehold on me and just pulling me backwards and backwards and I was just trying to get free from him. I wasn’t going after Tim McClelland. I mean, as Timmy would always say, “George, what were you gonna do to me? I’m 6’5″ [he was listed at 6’6″], I’ve got shin guards on, I’ve got a bat in one hand, a mask in the other. What are you gonna do to me?” I said, “Timmy, I was just going to come out and yell at you, I wasn’t going to hit you. You would’ve kicked my ass.” But it’s something that we all joke about. I remember getting telegrams from back in the day, 1983. I got a telegram from Joe Brinkman, the day that Lee MacPhail overruled it. He said, “Congratulations on your home run, can’t wait to see you again.” And ironically enough, Tim McClelland was umpiring behind home plate in Detroit when I got my bat back. And Tim says, “Hey, you want me to check your bat?” And I said, “Timmy, let’s just let this pass, OK?” But yeah, it was great. It was a good moment. Baseball players are always remembered for something, you know. And if I’m going to be remembered for hitting a home run and showing my emotions and my desire to win, that’s good, that’s a good thing.

What did you learn about how the Yankees even thought to do that [challenge the home run]?

Well, two weeks prior to that we were playing the Yankees in Kansas City. I was using the same bat. And [Yankees third baseman] Graig Nettles always tells the story that we (the Yankees) knew it was illegal two weeks ago, but he (Brett) never got a hit in the seventh, eighth or ninth inning to change the outcome of the game. You might get a base hit with two outs and nobody on in the first inning or base hit with nobody on in the fifth inning. They’re not going to challenge that. So they waited for the right time, and the right time was in New York in Yankee Stadium in the ninth inning when I did something dramatic — and that’s when they called me out on it.

Royals general manager John Schuerholz decided to appeal. What do you know about the process and decision?

Obviously, I love the decision when Schuerholz and Dean Taylor, our assistant GM, protested the call by the umpire. Lee MacPhail ruled in the Royals’ favor. I don’t know what was in the letter, but John’s a pretty bright guy, and they got it overturned. We had to go back on an off day. I was kicked out of the game. I was still gonna go to the game, but the manager then, Dick Howser, said don’t even go the stadium, it’ll be a circus. So me and the son of [famed actor] Don Ameche, Larry — he was a TWA rep, we always chartered TWA jets back then — we went to some restaurant in New Jersey, an Italian restaurant, and watched the game on a little 10-inch TV. And went back to the airport, the guys had to go there after finishing the game, and next thing you know we were flying to Baltimore.

What do you think this anniversary should mean?

I don’t know. Ironically enough, the Royals are in Yankee Stadium [over the weekend], which I think is great. I think every July 24th, they should play there. What does it mean? I don’t know. Put it this way, if I didn’t have the pine tar on my bat, we wouldn’t be doing this interview right now. I’d be on the golf course and maybe still sleeping, who knows. If it happened in Cleveland back then, if it happened in Oakland back then, would we be doing this? But it’s New York City, you know, and that’s the whole deal. New York’s a big deal. I seemed to always play well in New York. It was just something that I’m proud of. Sometimes you gotta remind the younger generation that I was the guy that did that, but it’s cool.

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Stanton won’t blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

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Stanton won't blame ailing elbows on torpedo bats

NEW YORK — Giancarlo Stanton, one of the first known adopters of the torpedo bat, declined Tuesday to say whether he believes using it last season caused the tendon ailments in both elbows that forced him to begin this season on the injured list.

Last month, Stanton alluded to “bat adjustments” he made last season as a possible reason for the epicondylitis, commonly known as tennis elbow, he’s dealing with.

“You’re not going to get the story you’re looking for,” Stanton said. “So, if that’s what you guys want, that ain’t going to happen.”

Stanton said he will continue using the torpedo bat when he returns from injury. The 35-year-old New York Yankees slugger, who has undergone multiple rounds of platelet-rich plasma injections to treat his elbows, shared during spring training that season-ending surgery on both elbows was a possibility. But he has progressed enough to recently begin hitting off a Trajekt — a pitching robot that simulates any pitcher’s windup, arm angle and arsenal. However, he still wouldn’t define his return as “close.”

He said he will first have to go on a minor league rehab assignment at an unknown date for an unknown period. It won’t start in the next week, he added.

“This is very unique,” Stanton said. “I definitely haven’t missed a full spring before. So, it just depends on my timing, really, how fast I get to feel comfortable in the box versus live pitching.”

While the craze of the torpedo bat (also known as the bowling pin bat) has swept the baseball world since it was revealed Saturday — while the Yankees were blasting nine home runs against the Milwaukee Brewers — that a few members of the Yankees were using one, the modified bat already had quietly spread throughout the majors in 2024. Both Stanton and former Yankees catcher Jose Trevino, now with the Cincinnati Reds, were among players who used the bats last season after being introduced to the concept by Aaron Leanhardt, an MIT-educated physicist and former minor league hitting coordinator for the organization.

Anthony Volpe, Jazz Chisholm Jr., Cody Bellinger, Paul Goldschmidt and Austin Wells were among the Yankees who used torpedo bats during their season-opening sweep of the Brewers.

Stanton explained he has changed bats before. He said he has usually adjusted the length. Sometimes, he opts for lighter bats at the end of the long season. In the past, when knuckleballers were more common in the majors, he’d opt for heavier lumber.

Last year, he said he simply chose his usual bat but with a different barrel after experimenting with a few models.

“I mean, it makes a lot of sense,” Stanton said. “But it’s, like, why hasn’t anyone thought of it in 100-plus years? So, it’s explained simply and then you try it and as long as it’s comfortable in your hands [it works]. We’re creatures of habit, so the bat’s got to feel kind of like a glove or an extension of your arm.”

Stanton went on to lead the majors with an average bat velocity of 81.2 mph — nearly 3 mph ahead of the competition. He had a rebound, but not spectacular, regular season in which he batted .233 with 27 home runs and a .773 OPS before clubbing seven home runs in 14 playoff games.

“It’s not like [it was] unreal all of a sudden for me,” Stanton said.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone described the torpedo bats “as the evolution of equipment” comparable to getting fitted for new golf clubs. He said the organization is not pushing players to use them and insisted the science is more complicated than just picking a bat with a different barrel.

“There’s a lot more to it than, ‘I’ll take the torpedo bat on the shelf over there — 34 [inches], 32 [ounces],'” Boone said. “Our guys are way more invested in it than that. And really personalized, really work with our players in creating this stuff. But it’s equipment evolving.”

As players around the majors order torpedo bats in droves after the Yankees’ barrage over the weekend — they clubbed a record-tying 13 homers in two games against the Brewers — Boone alluded to the notion that, though everyone is aware of the concept, not every organization can optimize its usage.

“You’re trying to just, where you can on the margins, move the needle a little bit,” Boone said. “And that’s really all you’re going to do. I don’t think this is some revelation to where we’re going to be; it’s not related to the weekend that we had, for example. Like, I don’t think it’s that. Maybe in some cases, for some players, it may help them incrementally. That’s how I view it.”

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Rangers’ Eovaldi gets season’s 1st complete game

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Rangers' Eovaldi gets season's 1st complete game

CINCINNATI — Nathan Eovaldi pitched a four-hitter for the majors’ first complete game of the season, and the Texas Rangers blanked the Cincinnati Reds 1-0 on Tuesday night.

Eovaldi struck out eight and walked none in his fifth career complete game. The right-hander threw 99 pitches, 70 for strikes.

It was Eovaldi’s first shutout since April 29, 2023, against the Yankees and just the third of his career. He became the first Ranger with multiple career shutouts with no walks in the past 30 seasons, according to ESPN Research.

“I feel like, by the fifth or sixth inning, that my pitch count was down, and I feel like we had a really good game plan going into it,” Eovaldi said in his on-field postgame interview on Victory+. “I thought [Texas catcher Kyle Higashioka] called a great game. We were on the same page throughout the entire game.”

In the first inning, Wyatt Langford homered for Texas against Carson Spiers (0-1), and that proved to be all Eovaldi needed. A day after Cincinnati collected 14 hits in a 14-3 victory in the series opener, Eovaldi (1-0) silenced the lineup.

“We needed it, these bats are still quiet,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said of his starter’s outing. “It took a well-pitched game like that. What a game.”

The Reds put the tying run on second with two out in the ninth, but Eovaldi retired Elly De La Cruz on a grounder to first.

“He’s as good as I have seen as far as a pitcher performing under pressure,” Bochy said. “He is so good. He’s a pro out there. He wants to be out there.”

Eovaldi retired his first 12 batters, including five straight strikeouts during one stretch. Gavin Lux hit a leadoff single in the fifth for Cincinnati’s first baserunner.

“I think it was the first-pitch strikes,” Eovaldi said, when asked what made him so efficient. “But also, the off-speed pitches. I was able to get some quick outs, and I didn’t really have many deep counts. … And not walking guys helps.”

Spiers gave up three hits in six innings in his season debut. He struck out five and walked two for the Reds, who fell to 2-3.

The Rangers moved to 4-2, and Langford has been at the center of it all. He now has two home runs in six games to begin the season. In 2024, it took him until the 29th game of the season to homer for the first time. Langford hit 16 homers in 134 games last season during his rookie year.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Source: USC flips Ducks’ Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

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Source: USC flips Ducks' Topui, No. 3 DT in 2026

USC secured the commitment of former Oregon defensive tackle pledge Tomuhini Topui on Tuesday, a source told ESPN, handing the Trojans their latest recruiting victory in the 2026 cycle over the Big Ten rival Ducks.

Topui, ESPN’s No. 3 defensive tackle and No. 72 overall recruit in the 2026 class, spent five and half months committed to Oregon before pulling his pledge from the program on March 27. Topui attended USC’s initial spring camp practice that afternoon, and seven days later the 6-foot-4, 295-pound defender gave the Trojans his pledge to become the sixth ESPN 300 defender in the program’s 2026 class.

Topui’s commitment gives USC its 10th ESPN 300 pledge this cycle — more than any other program nationally — and pulls a fourth top-100 recruit into the impressive defensive class the Trojans are building this spring. Alongside Topui, USC’s defensive class includes in-state cornerbacks R.J. Sermons (No. 26 in ESPN Junior 300) and Brandon Lockhart (No. 77); four-star outside linebacker Xavier Griffin (No. 27) out of Gainesville, Georgia; and two more defensive line pledges between Jaimeon Winfield (No. 143) and Simote Katoanga (No. 174).

The Trojans are working to reestablish their local recruiting presence in the 2026 class under newly hired general manager Chad Bowden. Topui not only gives the Trojans their 11th in-state commit in the cycle, but his pledge represents a potentially important step toward revamping the program’s pipeline to perennial local powerhouse Mater Dei High School, too.

Topui will enter his senior season this fall at Mater Dei, the program that has produced a long line of USC stars including Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley and Amon-Ra St. Brown. However, if Topui ultimately signs with the program later this year, he’ll mark the Trojans’ first Mater Dei signee since the 2022 cycle, when USC pulled three top-300 prospects — Domani Jackson, Raleek Brown and C.J. Williams — from the high school program based in Santa Ana, California.

Topui’s flip to the Trojans also adds another layer to a recruiting rivalry rekindling between USC and Oregon in the 2026 cycle.

Tuesday’s commitment comes less than two months after coach Lincoln Riley and the Trojans flipped four-star Oregon quarterback pledge Jonas Williams, ESPN’s No. 2 dual-threat quarterback in 2026. USC is expected to continue targeting several Ducks commits this spring, including four-star offensive tackle Kodi Greene, another top prospect out of Mater Dei.

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