MFS62 wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 1:46 pm
Edgy MD wrote: ↑Mon Jun 24, 2024 11:18 am
That's incorrect.
A hand being (or actually seeming) sticky isn't illegal. A hand having foreign, explicitly disallowed, substances applied to it is.
The hand seeming to be sticky is (ambiguous) evidence, but it is not the violation itself, and thus the umpires are forced to make an unfortunate judgment call.
How can a hand be (naturally) sticky without the application of a foreign substance?
Later
One could have innocently made recent contact with a chocolate bar, a candy wrapper, hair gel, sexual fluids, sunscreen, eyeblack, a sugary drink, bubble gum, or all of the above.
None of these things are explicitly disallowed or necessarily indicate malicious intent.
Even more innocently, one's metabolism could theoretically turn his or her naturally occurring hand oil and/or sweat to be stickier than the mean, especially when combined with resin and/or dirt. it's just guesswork that the umps are forced to exercise.