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Most Major League Baseball suspensions these days concern cheating by taking performance-enhancing substances, however, Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Will Smith was just handed an eight-game for having a foreign substance on his arm. Smith was thrown out of his team’s game on May 21 and was handed the suspension by MLB leas than 24 hours later. According to the Brewers and Smith, he’s panning on appealing the ruling. The Brewers ended up losing the game 10-1.

MLB released an official statement regarding the incident which said, “Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Will Smith has received an eight-game suspension for having a foreign substance on his arm during the bottom of the seventh inning of his Club’s Thursday, May 21st game against the Atlanta Braves at Turner Field.”

Since Smith is appealing the ban he’ll be able to suit up with the rest of his teammates until the matter is dealt with and officially closed. Smith admitted that he did indeed have a substance on his arm and it was a combination of rosin and suntan lotion. However, while it often happens since it allows pitchers to grip the ball better; it’s against the rules in the Majors. Most of the time nothing is done about it unless somebody complains, and that’s what happened to Smith. The umpire was made aware of the substance when Fredi Gonzales, the manager of the Braves brought it to his attention.

Smith said he wasn’t trying to gain an unfair advantage in the game and that he simply forgot to wipe the shiny substance off of his arm when he entered the game. Still, rules are rules and smith got caught breaking them. Many fans and ball players believe that the majority of pitchers use some sort of substance to give them a better grip on the ball. In fact, a lot of players prefer the pitcher to have the best grip possible so they don’t lose control and end up getting beaned in the head by a fastball. Smith’s problem was that he didn’t hide the substance and it was out in the open for all to see, and this rubbed Gonzalez the wrong way.

Ironically, when Smith entered the game he hit the first batter he faced with a pitch.