Yankees All-Star Gerrit Cole Brutally Struggles to Respond After NY Post Reporter Asks if He’s Cheating

New York Yankees $300 million man Gerrit Cole is a great pitcher, and a terrible improviser.

Tuesday afternoon, Cole was asked a simple question by Ken Davidoff of the New York Post. “Have you ever used Spider Tack while pitching?”

Spider Tack is used to enhance the power grip for weightlifters. And despite being forbidden by Major League Baseball, it’s also used by pitchers to increase their spin rate.

“Umm. I don’t [long pause] – I don’t know if, uh – I don’t quite know how to answer that, to be honest,” Cole said, very awkwardly.

Gerrit Cole on if he ever used Spider Tack while pitching:

“I don’t quite know how to answer that, to be honest…If MLB wants to legislate some more stuff, that’s a conversation that we can have” pic.twitter.com/2fR1AUeOQX

— Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) June 8, 2021

If he said “yes,” Cole would have himself up for a possible suspension. If Cole said “no,” the ramifications could be enormous if he’s caught lying. But worse than the “I don’t know,” was the long pause, which became the most damning moment for Cole. And as bad as Cole looks, the Yankees are equally at fault. They knew this question was coming, and it seems like they didn’t prep their star pitcher with an answer.

The topic has dominated baseball recently, with Cole emerging at the center of the discussion. Just last week, former MLB MVP Josh Donaldson cited Cole specifically, when he discussed wanting the sport to better enforce rules against pitchers using illegal substances.

“Is it a coincidence that Gerrit Cole’s spin rate numbers went down (last Thursday) after four minor-leaguers got suspended for 10 games? Is that possible? I don’t know. Maybe,” Donaldson said. “At the same time, with this situation, they’ve let guys do it.”

At the absolute minimum, the Yankees had three days to prep Cole on how to answer a question about using illegal substances when pitching. The result, was Cole now being treated as the face for spider tack use in Major League Baseball, even though he hasn’t officially been caught.

Major League Baseball has long had rules in place restricting the use of foreign substances, but just like steroids in the ‘90s, they’ve been difficult to enforce, and largely ignored. But now that spin rates are a more frequently used analytic to measure a pitcher’s effectiveness, spin rate fluctuation can help determine if a pitcher is using spider tack or a similar substance.