Opinion: MLB's well-intended pitcher crackdown is instead creating a public spectacle

This can’t go on.

Major League Baseball’s attempt to legislate illegal substances off pitchers’ bodies and out of the game couldn’t even make it through the first full night of games before it devolved into a sideshow of showmanship, head games and performance art.

Start with Philadelphia Phillies manager Joe Girardi’s daft challenge of future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer – the first skipper to touch that third rail of undressing an opposing pitcher without significant probable cause – and continue through the dozens and dozens of post-inning inspections, capped by Sergio Romo’s disrobing, and one thought comes to mind.

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