The Pine Tar Bat – George Brett

by Joseph Terrazas

This story is NOT about the game between the Royals and the Texas Rangers on August, 13th 1990. But it IS about what happened that night…….

The Pine Tar Bat, It was David against Goliath, The Team from a small midwestern town challenging the might Yankees in New York. They brought in Goose Gossage to face George Brett. 1st pitch Brett put it up in the right field 2nd Deck. The Yankees a few games before noticed he used a lot of sticky pine tar instead of batting gloves. Well after Brett’s game deciding  home run they brought the pine tar rule (can’t be over 17” from the handle).

So the umpires called him out. (it was a very big deal) the Baseball Commissioner stepped in and said the bat not the pine tar hit the ball. The Royals had to fly clear to New York to finish out the last inning. But this was one of Baseball’s great moments.

I took the photo at the bottom of this Stubstory at the Baseball Hall of Fame, then came home to Galveston and enlarged it into an 8×10. Later I went to Kansas city on vacation, caught a couple of Royals games and I managed to get Brett’s attention. I told him it was his pine tar bat, Brett signed the picture and asked me, “is that what happened to that thing?? -  to end up in Cooperstown?”.

During the game a lot of fans were offering me big bucks for this autograph, I hope you may enjoy this story.

Thank you. Joseph Terrazas