Sorry, last one for the outraged Royals fans who want a fuller account of the illegal-bat rule.

E-mail: “Rule 6.06d only refers to bats altered for improved distance. Pine tar improves the batter’s grip, not the distance the ball travels (corking, in theory); ergo, MacPhail was correct. The bat should have been removed from the game and play on.” Many people wondering how I could have missed this. Maybe the anti-biotic eyelid cream is going to my head. Two more things:

ADDENDUM I: E-mail: “ell your Royals fans to stop whining. Those of us

in St. Louis will never forget being Denkingered.”

ADDENDUM II: Speaking of George Brett, if you have a kid in little league, you should check out The Art of Hitting .300 by Charley Lau. It’s timeless classic, with about 800 pictures of George Brett hitting. Without this book, I never would have been able to hit .230 in high school.

That’s it. I promise never to mention pine tar again until the 40th anniversary.