30 Years Later, Brett Is Still Dealing With Pine Tar George Brett, the Hall of Fame third baseman and Kansas City's new hitting coach, tried to sneak out of the Royals" clubhouse early Tuesday afternoon, but a few curious players took note. They may have already guessed where he was headed. "Yeah, I've got to go speak to the media," Brett said before the Royals faced the Yankees on Tuesday night, adding after a pause, "about the pine tar." It has been almost 30 years since Brett tore out of the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium on July 24, 1983, and raced maniacally toward Tim McClelland, the home plate umpire. McClelland had just ruled Brett out, wiping out his go-ahead, two-run homer, because he had too much pine tar on his bat. Brett and pine tar became practically synonymous, and Major League Baseball instantly had one of its most indelible scenes, as ugly as it was. Brett had to be physically restrained by Dick Howser, the Royals" manager, and the umpire crew chief Joe Brinkman after his furious dash at McClelland. "I've still got a sore neck," Brett said. Brett was able to joke Tuesday about the incident, which shadowed him through the rest of his career, even as he returned to Yankee Stadium as the Royals" hitting coach. Brett said hardly a day passes without him hearing a reference to that home run, McClelland's ruling or his reaction. "Pretty much every time I play golf," Brett said. They always want to check my clubs for pine tar. He said he had received countless comparisons to his sprint out of the dugout, but it reminded him of "my dad chasing me through the house a couple times when I brought home my report card in high school." Brett said he could remember almost every detail about that Sunday afternoon game. He noted a line-drive single by Dave Winfield off Bud Black that flew by him at third base so quickly that he could not say if he "dove to get it or dove out of the way." Brett never wore batting gloves, and in the midsummer heat, coating his bats with pine tar and rosin was part of his daily routine. He did not break many bats, and he said that particular 34-inch, 32-ounce Louisville Slugger had been intact for a couple of weeks by the time July 24 arrived. "After that length of time," Brett said, "that bat was getting pretty ugly. But it was still working. Indeed, Brett sent a 1-0 fastball from Goose Gossage, the Yankees" closer, over the right-field wall in the top of the ninth to give the Royals a 5-4 lead. It was then that Brett received a firsthand lesson about baseball's pine tar rule, which states that pine tar cannot extend more than 18 inches up from the handle of the bat. After the game, which ended as a 4-3 Yankees" win, the Royals immediately filed a protest with the American League office. About a week later Lee McPhail, the A.L. president, upheld the Royals" protest, noting that only the bat should have been removed from the game, and that Brett's home run should have stood. The Yankees and the Royals resumed the game on Aug. 18, with Kansas City leading, 5-4, and two outs in the top of the ninth. As for what Brett thinks when he sees a replay of the game, or is asked to tell his version of the incident, he said he was not ashamed of how he acted that afternoon. "I think that just showed my desire to win, and especially to win here in New York," Brett said. To hit a home run off Goose was a big thrill, and then to have it taken away off a trivial portion of the rule book, I just lost it. Brett said he and Gossage have since become good friends, beginning a few years afterward, when Gossage asked Brett if he would donate a bat for a restaurant Gossage had recently opened in Colorado Springs. One condition: would Brett put some pine tar on the handle? "I got a bat and loaded it," Brett said. By the end of the day, that thing looked like it'd been through a war.