GloveGate may not carry on beyond this weekend at Wrigley Field, but the Cubs will still be scratching their head as they move on.
After Brandon Kintzler struck out Lorenzo Cain to begin the eighth inning of Friday's game against the Brewers, there was a couple-minute delay in the game as home-plate umpire John Tumpane told the Cubs reliever he needed to switch gloves.
It was a bizarre sequence that ended when a Cubs clubhouse attendant ran to Kintzler's locker and grabbed his backup glove — a black glove with blue laces.
Kintzler then went out and struck out Christian Yelich on three pitches before getting Keston Hiura to ground out, so it was no harm done for the Cubs or Kintzler.
But it was still puzzling as to the issue with the first glove — a gray color that Rawlings told Kintzler had been approved by Major League Baseball:
"It was all about the color of the glove," Joe Maddon said. "That's what I was told. I said to John: 'You realize he's been using that glove all year? I could tell you it's gray. I'm not gonna get upset with you guys — where does that come from?'
"And then he said, 'it comes from above.' I'm just so curious regarding the brainstorming involved in regards to outlawing a gray glove with blue lace. That really is interesting to me. I don't know if I have the time to figure that out."
MLB
Kintzler intially thought it was the Brewers trying to throw him off and requesting a glove change, but the call came from Tumpane and the umpires.
"I tried to make fun of [Brewers third base coach] Ed Seder about it, but he said it wasn't him," Kintzler said. "I said, 'That's what you got? That's what you guys are gonna do?' He said it wasn't him. Maybe it was Major League Baseball."
Even the next day, the veteran pitcher still didn't have any clear answers on the issue with the glove, especially since he had used it in each of his 47 appearances on the season prior to Friday.
But he definitely made sure to reach out to Rawlings:
"I wanted to know why they're sending me illegal gloves!" he laughed.