CC Sabathia: MLB continues to find right pre-tacked baseball; Japan not giving up their formula

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CC Sabathia will not be getting back on the mound anytime soon, but he is behind the scenes with MLB trying to help those that still grind innings that start and end with umpires checking for sticky substances. 

The league’s crackdown on banned substances that pitchers use to get more control and have more movement on pitches came hard midway through the 2021 season. However, those pitchers also urged MLB to figure out how to mitigate the problem. 

The issue still persists today, but Sabathia, who serves in an advisory role to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, told Fox News Digital the league continues to work with Dow Chemical to find a new tacky baseball.

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Detailed view of an MLB baseball and Cubs hat during a regular season game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs on Aug. 25, 2022, at Wrigley Field in Chicago. (Brandon Sloter/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

"We have like 15 PhDs working on it at Dow Chemical," Sabathia said before playing some golf in his PitCCH In Foundation’s 3rd Annual Charity Golf Tournament. "We had a ball this year that was pretty good. It was tacky when it came out of the wrapper. But then it got too gummy down in the heat in the Texas league. They’re trying."

This innovative ball was used in the first half of the season in the Double-A Southern League, but as Sabathia mentioned, heat was not friendly to it. 

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The ball, which still has its red colored stitches, comes packed in a sealed foil pouch that gets unwrapped at the ballpark. The