Today’s song of the day is based on an actual incident.

In 1983, The Royals and the Yankees were playing in Yankee Stadium.  At the top of the Ninth Inning, the score was 4-3, Yankees.  With two outs, the Royals’ George Brett hit a two-run home run to give his team the lead.  However, Yankees manager Billy Martin protested that Brett had too much pine tar on his bat.  When the umpires demanded to see the bat, Royals pitcher Gaylord Perry gave the bat to a batboy and told him to hide it.  When they finally did manage to find the bat, the umpires agreed with Martin, nullifying the homerun and calling Brett out.  Because Brett was the third out, this gave the Yankees the victory.  An understandably angry Brett attempted to confront umpire Tim McClelland about the ruling but was physically restrained by his teammates.

The Royals protested the game and the American League President, Lee MacPhail, upheld their protest, saying that pine tar did not give a batter an unfair advantage.  25 days later, the Yankee and the Royals met and resumed the game in a nearly deserted stadium.  The Royals won 5-4.  As for the bat itself, it now resides in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Pine Tar Incident inspired today’s song of the day, The Pine-Tarred Bat or The Ballad of George Brett, written and performed by “Red River” Dave McEnery.