The Pine Tar Game: The Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees, and Baseball's Most Absurd and Entertaining Controversy

Former New York Daily News sportswriter Bondy (Who's on Worst??) explores the backstory, in-game details, and aftermath of a memorable 1983 baseball matchup between the mighty New York Yankees and the upstart Kansas City Royals. Bondy blends previously published accounts with his own new interviews to tell the story behind Yankees manager Billy Martin accusing Royals superstar slugger George Brett of cheating by applying too much of a grip-aiding sticky substance on a bat used to blast a game-winning home run. This is much more than the story of just one incident in one game. Rather, it's the richly detailed and insightful history of two very different franchises on a collision course—the big-budget, long-successful Yankees, led by the notoriously demanding George Steinbrenner, and the penny-pinching but improving Royals, guided by Steinbrenner's polar opposite, the mild-mannered Ewing Kauffman. Bondy examines not only the decades coming up to the game but also the weeks following, when lawyers, judges, players, managers, and team owners sparred over the umpires' controversial handling of the incident. The author gives voice to them all in this well-rounded and unbiased account that keeps to the facts and lets the reader decide who was the hero and who was the villain.