page_title: Pine Tar Incident
section_title: Base touching affidavit
hierarchical_section_title: Pine Tar Incident / Conclusion / Base touching affidavit
caption_attribution_description: Billy Martin in New York Yankees Spring Training, 1983. Philatio (talk) 03:34, 5 May 2008 (UTC) 03:34, 5 May 2008 . . Phil5329 . . 178×219 (6 KB)
context_page_description: The Pine Tar Incident was a controversial incident in 1983 during an American League baseball game played between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium in New York City on Sunday, July 24, 1983.
  With his team trailing 4–3 in the top half of the ninth inning and two out, Royals' third baseman George Brett hit a two-run home run to give his team the lead. However, Yankees manager Billy Martin, who had noticed a large amount of pine tar on Brett's bat, requested that the umpires inspect his bat. The umpires ruled that the amount of pine tar on the bat exceeded the amount allowed by rule, nullified Brett's home run, and called him out. As Brett was the third out in the ninth inning with the home team in the lead, the game ended with a Yankees win.
  The Royals protested the game, and American League president Lee MacPhail upheld their protest. MacPhail ordered that the game be continued from the point of Brett's home run. The game was resumed 25 days later on August 18, and officially ended with the Royals winning 5–4.
context_section_description: Before the first pitch to Hal McRae (who followed Brett in the lineup), Yankee pitcher George Frazier threw the first ball to first base to challenge Brett's home run on the grounds that Brett had not touched first base.  Umpire Tim Welke (given incorrectly in some sources as Tim McClelland, the original home plate umpire) called safe, even though he had not officiated the July 24 game and seen Brett touch the bases.  Frazier then threw to second, claiming that the base was touched by neither Brett nor U L Washington, the other player scoring on the home run, but umpire Dave Phillips signaled safe. 
  Martin went on the field to protest, and Phillips, chief of the new crew, pulled out a notarized affidavit, produced by MacPhail's administrative assistant Bob Fishel, signed by all four umpires from July 24 indicating that Brett had touched every base.  Fishel had anticipated that Martin would protest the base touching and the umpires' personal knowledge of it.
  Martin claimed to be surprised by the affidavit because he had spoken by telephone to the first base umpire from July 24, Drew Coble, who had said that he wasn't looking at first base when Brett had circled first base.  As he exited, the umpires announced that the game was being played under protest by the Yankees.
caption: Yankees manager Billy Martin unsuccessfully argued that the Royals baserunners had not touched each base.
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