Davey Johnson terms Joe Maddon ‘a weird wuss’ on the issue of pine tar used by Joel Peralta-MLB
The Washington Nationals’ manager Davey Johnson retorts to Tampa Bay Rays Joe Maddon’s allegations. On being called a coward for reporting to the umpire about pine tar that the Rays' reliever Joel Peralta used in the game, Johnson replies by terming him
‘a weird wuss’.
As per the rules, pine tar that pitchers use is not allowed. Keeping this in view, during the game on Tuesday, as soon as Johnson spotted Peralta with pine tar, he immediately brought this into the notice of the umpire. Afterwards, the umpire ejected Peralta
from the park.
This however did not go down well on Maddon, who considered this an attempt to avoid the damage that Peralta had to wreak as a reliever. Heart of his allegations was the fact that he blamed Johnson for using inside information and thus called into question
his deceptive manner.
To this, Johnson pointed out the role of baseball rules and reason of their existence. Only purpose he wanted to achieve from this, as he stated, was to make sure nobody plays with rules of the game.
When Maddon explained that this will affect the Nationals’ players more as they also use pine tar, Johnson replied that whosoever breaches the rule should be punished, regardless of which team he belongs to. He further states that instead of hurling accusations,
Maddon will be better off if he can go through the rulebook.
“And anytime there’s a rule violation, as far as I’m concerned, it’s just a rule violation,” Johnson said. “My only comments to him is, read the rulebook. It’s simple. I’ve been involved in every conceivable kind of thing you can think of about players trying
to get an edge mentally or physically, and that’s part of the game. When somebody goes a little overboard, you call it out. It’s that simple. As far as I’m concerned, it’s over and done with.”
Johnson has set the precedent by bringing the matter to light and putting Peralta under public scrutiny. A practice which was continuing unnoticed will be reduced to some extent now. One will hope that both the managers will not cross professional boundaries
in their attempt to prove a point.
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