Leo Mazzone vaguely confessed that the great Braves teams of the late 90s sometimes doctored the ball.

But if John Smoltz and possibly Tom Glavine and/or Greg Maddux got away with it, then presumably so too did many other pitchers not anywhere near as good as those three. Yeah, it’s against the rules, but if umpires and baseball weren’t doing a good enough job policing it then the onus is on them. We’ve danced this tango before.

I talked about this a bit on the podcast last night: Looking back now, I don’t have nearly the hatred for the Braves that I now do for the Phillies. Maybe it’s just that the Phillies are the bad guys now and I have a short memory. But in retrospect, those Braves teams appear almost classy compared to the Phillies and all the grit spilling from their ill-advised chin beards.