If you are unfamiliar with the strange occurrence in which a ball seemingly defied gravity and stuck to Yadier Molina’s chest protector, then let me explain to you what happened.

During a matchup between the Cardinals and the Cubs, in the seventh inning, Brett Cecil threw a wild pitch in the dirt on a 0-2 count. Catcher Yadier Molina did as he was supposed to do and got in front of the ball to prevent it from going by him. Perhaps he did so a little too well as the ball somehow stuck to his chest protector. He could not find the ball giving the batter, Matt Szczur, enough time to run to first on the drop third strike rule. Once Molina discovered where the ball went, all he could do was laugh about the bizarre play.

The event was comical at first, and I myself found it quite humorous. But two batters later, there was nothing to laugh about as Kyle Schwarber hit a three-run bomb that propelled the Cubs to a 6-4 victory.

This has obviously never happened before in MLB history and it had me scratching my head thinking, ” What on Earth caused that ball to stick to Yadi’s chest protector?”. I don’t know about you, but I am really curious as to what caused that baseball to stick to Molina’s chest protector. So let’s look at two possible scenarios and see which one is most likely?

SCENARIO #1: Maybe, just maybe, on Thursday, March 6, 2017, one ball in the 7th inning of a game between the Chicago Cubs and the St. Louis Cardinals spontaneously and miraculously defied the laws of physics and gravity for just a moment and stuck to Molina’s chest protector.

I am just kidding there is no way that could have happened…right?

Scenario #2: Molina’s chest protector is flat, so there is no way the ball could have gotten wedged or caught on the gear, so the only way that that ball could have stuck to Molina’s chest protector is if either the ball or the chest protector was really sticky. There must have been pine tar on Yadi’s gear or Brett Cecil was using it to enhance his pitching to give them an advantage over the Cubs hitters. For example, Michael Pineda was caught with pine tar on his neck in 2014 and was immediately thrown out of the game as every pitcher caught using pine tar does.

Molina was not very helpful as far as giving us any clues as to how it happened as far as putting any substances on his chest saying “Do I put anything on my chest protector? No. That’s a dumb question,”. Molina also repeatedly said,”I don’t know how” when asked by reporters how the ball stuck to him. (quotes from video below)

It is pretty clear that if we want answers, we are not getting them from Molina. But there is one person we could ask, and his name is Brett Cecil. There is only one problem though…Cecil left the clubhouse before the press gained entrance. Does that sound a little suspicious to you? It definitely seems suspicious to me. Maybe he left because he did not want to get asked about the pitch, or putting pine tar on his hands.

For all these reasons, I believe that pitcher, Brett Cecil, was using pine tar on his hand to get an edge over the Chicago Cubs hitters, but it obviously backfired since (as I said before) two batters later, Kyle Schwarber hit a 3-run home run that cost the Cardinals the game. What is the lesson we can learn here? Little Leaguers and Major leaguers alike, please don’t use pine tar, it rarely works and you will most likely get caught.

So here are a few questions for you to answer in the comments…

Do you agree with my reasoning?

If not, what do you think happened?

and…

Can the Cardinals best the Cubs in the NL Central in 2017? Why or why not.