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

During professional baseball’s rough-and-tumble era, Bondy, a veteran sports columnist for the New York Daily News, relives the 1983 Pine Tar game between the Kansas City Royals and New York Yankees, with all of the wacky subplots included. Bondy describes the maddening tempo of the dog days of that summer, when bad blood erupted between erratic Yankees manager Billy Martin and club owner George Steinbrenner, and the overall league view of the team was that of “robber barons” buying pennants and plundering talent. He does his homework on Royals owner Ewing Kauffman and his loyalty to the small Midwest city, his anti-union stance and thrifty budget, and his disdain for “King George” Steinbrenner and his Bronx Bombers. There’s a surprising cameo by conservative radio maven Rush Limbaugh, who worked for the Royals as promotions director, and is quoted as saying that the Yankees were “the Darth Vaders from the Northeast.” Bondy packs everything into the contentious finale of the four-game series, which caused a brawl and was replayed due to a rule about excessive pine tar on a Royals player’s bat. With this memorable game, Bondy shows how far America’s pastime has come, with new rules, big paydays, and the specter of steroid use. [em](July) [/em]