Wow, you’re not messing around with this one. I think the server at NBC is going to crash…...

... wow.  I was expecting something vague, or distant.  No - It’s a close up, and very clear.

He’s like.. spitting right on the ball.  What the hell.

Damn, Craig.  Um.  Damn.

Nice fade by Fox, too.  You can just hear them screaming in the control room, “CUT TO 3!! CUT TO 2!!  CUT ANYWHERE!!  Get a camera on someone else!!  Where’s the Jeter-cam?!?  I’ll take Scioscia for cryin out loud!!”

I can’t believe I’m writing this (since it involves watching spit in slow motion) but if you pause the video at just the write moment you can see the spittle move past the ball.  It happens at about 5 secs but you still have to pause it at the right moment just before the fade.

Upon further review, to hard for me to tell.  The video is to blurry on my computer to tell if what I’m seeing is actually the spit traveling.  Okay, I’m done looking at spit.

When I saw this during the game last night, all I could think of is how this will bring disgrace to the Yankees, and Rivera, and how there is now no way they will EVER retire his number in Yankee Stadium.  Oh, That’s right….

The video provoke me to consider several questions.

First - did we just see behind the wizard’s curtain?  If Rivera is using a spit ball on a frequent basis then I certainly question his past performances much as I would a PEDs user. 

Second - if he has been using a spitter all these year, why is this the first evidence we have seen of is spitting on a ball? With all the exposure he has gotten over the years I wonder why this is the first time we are seeing footage of what appears to be a pretty blatant act.  While I haven’t spent much time pausing the video I can see Tom point that it may be a camera angle issue making it appear like a direct hit.  As evidence to support the bad angle argument I refer you the ‘The Pick’ episode from Seinfeld in which Jerry clearly was just scratching his nose.

Third - if this is truly a spitter will it get the Kenny Rogers treatment in that pretty compelling evidence of doctoring the baseball was never truly investigated by MLB due to the embarrassment/scandal that could result.

Last - is Craig actively trying to set a record of hits on his other site as I think this may just outdo any entry questioning Jeter in any way whatsoever?  My sense is that the tech guys over at NBC are rerouting traffic to new and bigger servers to handle the volume of traffic Craig has generated with the stick he keeps poking into the side of Yankee fans.

15 years in the big leagues and this is the first time we see something like this from Mo? Yeah, I seriously doubt this is commonplace for Rivera. Non-story.

People haven’t pointed to character evidence once, Craig.

Here’s what I read above:

1) Angle is inconclusive. Just like off-center center field cams, we get a distorted view from this video. One viewer thought that under slow-mo, the spit passed the ball.

2) In light of Rivera never being seen in 15 years of intense scrutiny within baseball and in the media (e.g. the patented YES and ESPN Rivera cam during the post-season and all star games), the off-angle, normal spitting explanation gains currency.

3) Rivera is not a moron, especially if as you claim he’s been getting away with this a a lot (as you do in your first sentence), and would not spit openly onto the ball in full view of fans, the opposing dugout and other umps. If he was indeed a seasoned spitter, there’s no way he’d do this.

4) Further, the method inconclusively displayed in the video does not accord with any of the common traditional methods for making a spitball.

You’ve responded to only #2 (and maybe #3) by limiting your initial claim and saying that Rivera’s recently added this pitch to make up for diminished stuff. This is speculation that doesn’t overturn all the arguments to contrary you do not address (blatant stupidity/unskilled nature of move easily explained by this being a trick of the camera angle; likewise the unusual method for creating said “spitball”).

Just because if how odd it is when he does it, I’m going with “he was looking at the ball and he also spit, not thinking that he probably shouldn’t do those things all at once.”