 An umpire pet, a man's hair, like he was his pet cat. This breakdown is brought to you by DraftKings. This is James Karinczak. He's on the mound for the Guardians, looking in for the signs and a little backstory on him. He was a big sticky stuff user back in 2021 and 2020. When he first came up, there's a lot of videos. He didn't really hide it, didn't really care. A lot of pictures were big sticky stuff users, so I'm not trying to single him out. This video is just about him. But his spin rate also dropped like crazy in 2021. You can see the graph there in June when it got outlawed, just plummeted. Then he worked its way back up, had to find a new way to get grip on the ball. And in 2022, he's worked his way back up to almost where he was when he was using sticky stuff. This isn't a lone case. A lot of pictures have this same sequence, a lot of the known sticky stuff users. And what they've done, maybe, is go to their hair. And that's what's happening here. So he drops in that curve ball, goes to the hair, grabs it, goes to the rosin, then goes fastball up top. That's the two-pitch combination Karen Cech has, and it's very effective. Here it is side by side. They're both the same. They're both the same one is wildly different. The curve ball and the high fastball. So after every pitch in this outing against the twins, and these two teams are in a division race, and it's, you know, getting close, and the twins are dying a little bit, and they want to not die, he's throwing the pitches, he's getting the ball, he's going to the back of his hair, grabbing that, then grabbing the rosin, and then throwing the pitch. Throws the curve ball, it gets hit, and scooped, but not caught by the left fielder, so now there's a runner on base, and the twins have some momentum, and maybe they're going to put a rally together, and the curve ball is in there, wipe the hand clean, get the new ball, grab the hair a little bit, really yank it. Next pitch, fastball up top, but a ball. Gets the ball, touches it, grabs the hair, really yanks it, gets a new ball, grabs the hair, grabs the rosin, gets a new ball, grabs the hair, grabs the rosin, gets a new ball, grabs the hair, grabs the rosin, then on this particular pitch, because it's a new ball, the old one got fouled off, grabs the hair again, grabs the rosin, grabs the hair again, grabs the rosin, grabs the ball, okay, he's got it, he's good to go, he's ready, flipping the ball, he's very intense guy, And ready to pitch, what am I gonna throw? Two strikes, here we go. No wait, I need more of my hair. And at this point, the manager, the twins is like, what the hell, you're forcing my hand here, I gotta do something. We catch the tail end of his conversation with the ump, asking you to go check him. Thank you, this is awful. It's fucking awful. I believe Rocco's saying like it's awful that it's come to this, not awful that he's cheating. He's like, I don't wanna go make you touch guys and accuse them of cheating. And then the ump comes down and says, hey, I gotta check you. And he says, all right, cool, check me. What you got going on? And he says, well, here's my hair, you wanna touch it? And he's like, well, let me see your hat first. I'll just touch the inside of your hat. He starts taking his belt off, bows his head down now. And then he pats him like a cat. Like, good, good, good girl, good girl. I don't understand why they're checking him in this manner. I don't understand why Karen Shack had to bow his head and he couldn't just stand up straight. And then, you know, Ted Barrett here, he's a manly man. He's really gentle, you know. It's a really gentle touch. He's like, yeah, I don't see anything. I don't see anything. And I don't think he's using anything. Well, I have no idea. There could be some new stuff, but the old sticky stuff, you wouldn't grab the rosin afterwards. Now, all the pitchers can really do is they can use their sweat and the rosin and the mixture of that gets it stickier, gets more grip. Sometimes they use the sweat and you'll see them go on their forearm like this. But a lot of pitchers have grown out longer hair now to kind of like, you know, pull that hair. So maybe he's not Chintito. He's like, okay, that's what we're doing. We're checking. And Rocco's like, hey, Ted, nothing. You got nothing? And he's like, no, man, I was just, kind of felt like a nice, nice head of hair on him. And he was like, all right, well, shit. Now I feel awful, fastball outside. And now Karen Jack's got free range. He's going to go straight to the hair. He's going to pull, pull. He's going to go to the rosin. And Rocco's like, are you sure, dude? Are you sure? There's no hair, Joe, or hair spray or there's nothing in there. And he's going to go hair, hair, rosin. Rocco's just staring at him. And Karen Jack's like, I'm going to rub in their faces. Now hair, ball, rosin, hair, ball, rosin. Rocco's like, really? And there's nothing on there. Ball, ball, hair, ball, rosin, rosin. And ready to pitch. Rocco can't really believe it. High fastball into left field for the out, second out of the inning. The runner stays on first base. And let's grab some more of that hair. Let's get it going. It's working and we like it. Double it up. Rocco, pretty annoyed. There's nothing in his hair but sweat. Fastball to Correa. Correa says, probably going to throw that curveball now off of that fastball. Karen Jack says, let me step out and pull my hair. Grab the ball a bunch more. And Correa says, I think you're probably going to throw that curveball now after throwing a fastball strike. I don't know, Correa stats on if he's a good breaking ball hitter, but he seems to me like such a good breaking ball hitter. Gets the curveball, rocks it into left field. Two run homer, makes it a seven to six game. Bam! The twins have life. Didn't last long. But they had it. Let's go. Yes! I love that double take by Gio. Scared, scared, scared, scared, scared, scared. Oh, and excited. Excited. I don't know why I was so scared for so long. Excited, excited. Calm, calm. Calm down, calm down, calm down. Chris Archer's fired up. Correa crosses home. Now it's a close game. Did they get in their head? Did he get in their head? Who got in who's head? Oh, shit, Karen Jack goes up and in after the fastball, after the sticky stuff check. Says, it slipped, I'm sorry. But you know, the timing on that. Now, Rocco, I wonder if he feels bad if he's like, I caused that by checking. I don't want to cause that. I have no idea. Curveball in there and Karen Jack again is like, it was a bad pitch. It was like we got fouled it back. Curveball again. Fastball up top. Fastball up top. Rocked and a double. Holy shit, did they rattle him a 3-1 fastball? He threw it at the guy's head after the home run, hits it into the corner for a double. The twins got something going. Did the hair check work out? Did they get in his head? Even though the ump said it's legal, who's winning the mental battle? Fastball outside, but called a strike. Fastball down the middle, popped up. Guardians get out of the inning. Karen Jack escapes hair drama, gets pet. Correa has a good time. And this one's brought to you by DraftKings. Thanks to DraftKings for sponsoring the video. Always appreciate you guys. Sorry twins. This is how I would have done it. If I was young, I would have just went like this. All good. But instead they had James, Karen Jack, undo his belt and then like really submissively put his and then. Which feels really nice.