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CHICAGO (KMOX) - So...some intrigue in Wednesday's game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago White Sox on the South Side of Chicago.
In the bottom of the 7th, Cardinals pitcher Giovanny Gallegos entered the game had his hat confiscated by the umpiring crew - apparently for the presence of some kind of substance - but was allowed to stay in the game after being given a new hat.
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Mike Shildt was ejected and followed that with an animated argument with umpire Joe West. He was just celebrated on Tuesday for working his record-setting 5,376 MLB game.
Cardinals ace Jack Flaherty got in on the action after the game. He tweeted "so we picking and choosing ..."
After the game, Shildt had this to say:
"This is baseball's dirty little secret and it's the wrong time and the wrong arena to expose it ... First of all, Gio wears the same hat all year, OK. Hats accrue dirt, hats accrue substance, just stuff. We pitched a day game, so did Gio have some sunscreen at some point in his career to make sure he doesn't get some kinda melanoma? Possibly. Does he use rosin to help? Possibly. Are these things that baseball really wants to crack down on? No, it's not. I know that completely firsthand from the commissioner's office."
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West clarified that it was second base umpire Dan Bellino who called for Gallegos to switch hats. The hat was shipped to MLB's office in New York for further examination – which is typical protocol.
The Cardinals also released a statement from Shildt after the game:
“I have a great working relationship with the umpires and Major League Baseball.
They have a lot of challenges to doing their job and they do it well.
Having to police foreign substances, candidly, shouldn’t have to be a part of their job.”
Of course just after all of that, new hat firmly in place, Gallegos struck out Jose Abreu and Yermin Mercedes to finish the inning and keeping the Cardinals ahead 1-0 heading into the 8th. The Cardinals held on for a 4-0 win thanks to a pair of Tommy Edman home runs.
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