Pine Tar incident still has a grip on Brett

Five years ago, my wife and I spent our 20th anniversary in New York.
We had tickets to see The Who at Madison Square Garden and even caught a performance of the Tony award winning musical comedy “The Producers.”
One afternoon, we took a guided tour of the Big Apple and stopped at the Museum of Natural Art and History.
A large banner was draped over the massive doors that read “BASEBALL HALL OF FAME EXHIBIT.”
That certainly caught my eye.
When we entered the stately building, the first thing we saw was a nasty looking baseball bat that was covered with pine tar.
I thought to myself, “Here I am, a lifelong resident of the Kansas City metro area, and I have to travel to New York to see the pine tar bat.”
There, in the city that George Brett once said, “I hate. I hate everything about it, especially the Yankees,” was the bat he used 25 years ago today to hit what appeared to be the game-winning home run off fellow Hall of Famer and Yankee closer Rich “Goose” Gossage, in one of the most memorable moments of each player’s career.
“I like the pine tar incident,” Brett said, smiling, “because it made everyone forget about my hemorrhoids.”
He was referring to playing the 1980 World Series while suffering from a painful ailment that drew a loud “Ugh!” from the press box at Royals Stadium when Brett slid into third base on his rump.
“If the Pine Tar Game hadn’t happened in New York – at Yankee Stadium – I doubt if anyone would have remembered it,” Brett said Wednesday at Kauffman Stadium before a game against the Detroit Tigers. “I played 20 years and that’s the one at-bat everyone still wants to talk about.”
Brett’s ninth-inning blast off Gossage appeared to be a game winner, when all of a sudden late Yankees manager Billy Martin strolls out of the dugout and approaches home plate.
“Billy came out of the dugout, but it was that damned Graig Nettles (Yankees third baseman) who tipped him off about the pine tar rule,” Brett said. “I didn’t know that pine tar could only go so far up the handle.”
As Brett watched from the dugout, Martin visited with umpire Tim McClelland, who placed Brett’s bat on home plate. He found the pine tar went too far up the handle and signaled Brett out.
“I told Hal (McRae) or someone in the dugout, ‘If they call me out I’m going to go (bleeping) crazy.’ ”
McClelland raised his arm, signaling Brett out and the Royals third baseman stormed from the dugout.
Late Royals manager Dick Howser and utility infielder John Wathan held a wild-eyed Brett back as he approached McClelland.
“I don’t know what I would have done if I would have got close to him,” Brett said, “because I lost it.”
The incident brings a smile to the face of Gossage, who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this Sunday.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with this thing over the years,” said Gossage, who was part of a Wednesday conference call. “Of course, at the time it wasn’t fun. George was the maddest human being I’ve ever seen.”
McClelland, who is still a Major League Baseball umpire, added, “I knew he wasn’t going to hit me or run over me. If he did I’d probably own the Kansas City Royals now. In my 26 years, (Brett’s) the player that’s been the best to the umpires,” McClelland said. “He very seldom argued – except for this one situation.”
Former American League president Lee MacPhail eventually ruled that the home run would stand and the Royals went back to New York to finish the game – minus their star third baseman.
“I didn’t even go the stadium,” Brett said. “I sat in the airport bar with (former travel executive) Larry Ameche and watched the game on TV,” Brett said.
“There are times I think about the home run and what might have happened if they would have taken it away. It’s all crazy.”
But at least it beats hemorrhoids.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.