Aug. 23, 1982

Gaylord Perry, 43 years old and in his 21st major league season, has been accused of throwing a doctored baseball for years, but he's never been ejected for the act. Until tonight.

In the fifth inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox, the Seattle Mariners right-hander is warned by home-plate umpire Dave Phillips after finding "a funny substance on the ball. I told him he would be ejected either by putting something else on the ball, or by the flight of the ball, as the rules provide."

Two innings later, Phillips does not even check the ball after Boston's Rick Miller misses a 1-0 pitch. Phillips immediately thumbs Perry. "If I think he's throwing an illegal pitch and I think this was obviously an illegal pitch, I can throw him out," Phillips says.

While Perry objects to his ejection, he never says whether he threw a doctored baseball or not.