Mets manager Buck Showalter had umpires check Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove's ears
The New York Mets were playing for their season on Sunday night with the San Diego Padres trying to pull a Game 3 National League wild-card series upset at Citi Field.
And amid all that nervous tension, Mets fans could not stop staring at Padres pitcher Joe Musgrove’s ears.
Baseball teams and fans are inherently paranoid. They know that everyone goes to creative lengths to gain a competitive edge. It’s the “if we can get away with this, then just imagine what they’re doing” point of view. It’s partly why umpires check the hands of pitchers between innings. Teams don’t want foreign substances being used to give the pitcher an edge.
So, with all that in mind, Buck Showalter was incredibly paranoid with Musgrove as the Padres pitcher was dealing in Game 3.
In the first inning, Showalter was spotted checking the baseballs that Musgrove used. That only led to more speculation about why Showalter was suspicious. Then, we saw the close-up camera shots of Musgrove.
Andrew McCutchen - a 14-year MLB veteran and the 2013 NL MVP - echoed the feelings of Mets fans by tweeting that he was certain Musgrove had something on his ears, saying it was a substance called "Red Hot."
Of course, Musgrove could just be a heavy sweater, and stadium lights don’t do sweaty ears any favors. But in the sixth inning with the Mets down 4-0, Showalter couldn’t take it anymore. He asked the umpiring crew to do a foreign-substance check that actually led to the umps physically touching Musgrove’s ears.
The check ultimately concluded that Musgrove was just a sweaty dude with sweaty ears. At the very least, it gave us one of the stranger and more dramatic moments we’ll see in a playoff game.