Kyle Parker / theScore
The menu options were laid out before me, like stepping up to the counter of a Chipotle for cheaters.
Inside the netting surrounding the indoor bullpen at Performance Velocity Systems, a baseball training center in the southern hills of Pittsburgh, was an assortment of grip-enhancing substances.
On the plywood pitching mound was a container of pine tar; aerosol cans of BullFrog sunscreen and Cramer Firm Grip; and in a shallow, circular container of something called Spider Tack, a super-sticky paste developed to help grip Atlas Stones in strongman competitions. There was also a bag of rosin, a ubiquitous sight on major-league mounds.