Niekro Fails to Pass Inspection and Might Get Rap on Knuckles

As of about 9 o’clock Monday night, the American League had a file on Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Niekro. It was uncovered by home plate umpire Tim Tschida--who happens to call one of the Twin Cities his home--and it was enough to subject Niekro to a rather embarrassing public inspection.

The offense: Defacing a baseball. The punishment: A debasing in front of 33,983 spectators and four highly suspicious umpires, and immediate ejection from Monday night’s game against the Angels. A suspension and/or fine may be forthcoming.

It happened in the bottom of the fourth inning of the Twins’ 11-3 win in the first of a three-game series at Anaheim Stadium. Niekro was pitching to Brian Downing with one out when Tschida (hometown St. Paul, Minn.) approached the mound and asked to see the ball Niekro was clutching in his glove. Apparently, Niekro’s knuckleball was doing a little more dancing than usual.

Tschida found something on the ball that shouldn’t have been there, and quickly asked to see Niekro’s glove. The 42-year-old right-hander flipped the glove to Tschida in disgust, and the inspection was officially under way.

At this point, umpiring crew chief David Phillips and his crewmates gathered around Niekro, while Twin Manager Tom Kelly demanded an explanation for the rather rude treatment his pitcher was being accorded. The umpires simply ignored Kelly and ordered Niekro to empty his pockets. Upon inspecting their contents, Phillips and Tschida looked at Niekro and pointed to the Twins’ dugout. It was clear that Niekro was caught with his knuckles in the cookie jar.

The announcement sent up to the media from the umpires said that Niekro had been ejected for defacing the baseball, and an emery board had been found “on his person.” It also said that six baseballs were removed from the game to be sent to the office of American League President Bobby Brown for further inspection.

Said Phillips: “The balls are checked after every inning of every major league game. We were aware of what we might have, because we had collected several balls that had been scuffed in the same manner and in the same place.

“We went out with the intention of warning him and to ask to see his glove and hands. He put one hand in his back pocket as if to hide it and when he brought it out, he brought an illegal substance with him. We felt we had to eject him.”

Niekro denied any attempt to deceive the umpires, claiming that he has been carrying a piece of sandpaper and an emery board in the back pocket of his uniform for 15 seasons. The materials, he said, are used to file his fingernails to give him the proper grip for his knuckleball, and to sand away dead skin created by a blister. “When they told me to empty my pockets, I did it very voluntarily because I didn’t think I had anything to hide. Evidently I was wrong.”

Steve Palermo, the second base umpire, was asked if it’s a standard practice for knuckleball pitchers to carry such objects with them to the mound. “They can carry a chain-saw as long as they don’t use it on the ball,” he said. “The Twins were saying that he used the emery board for his fingers, but we felt otherwise.”

Similar incidents have met with stiff penalties. In 1982, Gaylord Perry was suspended 10 days and fined $250 for throwing an “illegal pitch.” In 1980, Dodger left-hander Rick Honeycutt--then pitching for the Seattle Mariners--was found to have a thumbtack in his glove. He was suspended the last five games of the 1980 season and the first five of 1981.

Television replays of Monday’s incident revealed that Niekro tried to flip the objectionable object out of his back pocket with no one noticing, but the evidence was there at his feet. Niekro was ejected and replaced by left-hander Dan Schatzeder. The pitching line on Niekro: 3 innings, 4 hits, 2 earned runs, 5 walks, 1 strikeout and 1 emery board.

Niekro is one of two 42-year-old pitchers the Twins plan on starting in this series against the Angels (newly acquired Steve Carlton is tonight’s scheduled starter). Niekro came to the Twins from the New York Yankees on June 6 in exchange for catcher Mark Salas and an undisclosed amount of cash. But Niekro’s knuckler has lost a little of its dance since he injured his pitching shoulder when he was involved in a brawl with the Milwaukee Brewers on June 17. The injury forced him to miss one start, and he couldn’t get through the fourth inning in his next two outings. After winning his first two decisions with the Twins, he has four losses and four no-decisions.