The Pine Tar Game

July 24, 1983, Yankee Stadium. George Brett hit a two-run homer off Goose Gossage in the ninth, and Kansas City took the lead. Billy Martin asked the umpires to look at the bat. The rule limited pine tar to 18 inches up the handle. Tim McClelland laid the bat across the plate, found tar well beyond the limit, and called Brett out. Brett came out of the dugout in the eruption that became the photograph.

American League president Lee MacPhail overturned the call. The pine-tar rule, he wrote, was about keeping the ball clean, not about canceling a home run after it had left the park. The game was resumed on August 18 from the moment after the homer, with Brett having been ejected for the argument and therefore not on the field. The Royals won, 5–4.

Martin had the rule on his side for an evening. MacPhail decided the rule had been pointed at the wrong thing. The resumed game took a few minutes. The argument took the rest of the summer.