Talk:Pine tar

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Oddly, I see no mention of horse-hoof care in this article. Pine tar is used both to dry an overly-soft hoof, and to seal in moisture. So one horseman said on the mailing list equine-l, some years ago, it won't easily overdry the hoof, as other common products such as iodine and chlorine bleach will do. So in the deep desert, you can consider soaking your horses crumbling feet, then applying the tar to keep them from drying back out quite so quickly.

What I also don't see in this article, and was hoping to find, was the ideal temperature to apply the stuff. I just bought a can of pine tar, and at my house's 60deg F. the stuff is almost as hard as a rock. I'm currently planning on setting the can in boiling water until it loosens (rough guess: it should become applyable with a brush at around 90d) but I don't know if lighter compounds will boil off if I do that, or if I risk otherwise denaturing the stuff.

--Further explanation this makes no sense-- this is on the page "Other Uses of "Pine tar"

Pine Tar also is the name of the renowned show horse kept by Cordo Carraher of Oxford, Maryland. On March 25, 2006, Pine Tar broke through his electric fence subjecting himself to previously unforseen danger." i'm guessing that the horse is still lost? why is the horse renowned? "previously unforseen danger" c'mon thats overdramatic and obtuse.

[edit] Pine Tar Incident

This lengthy baseball trivia doesn't really belong on this page - could someone remove it to a more suitable location? (or just delete it, I'm not convinced it is notable) - MPF 01:43, 24 May 2006 (UTC) Pine tar, especially now, is a huge topic in baseball. I believe it should be kept in.

Uh, does anyone know _why_ pine tar is used to cheat when pitching? How exactly does it help the pitcher??

Check the spitball page. It explains it fairly well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitball 70.232.87.129 02:25, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

This is inaccurate; the main purpose of pine tar is to aid the pitcher in gripping the ball in cold weather (which may even be to the benefit of the hitter-- to paraphrase one ESPN analyst, the better Kenny Rogers' grip, the lower the chance he beans the batter in the face), not to affect the trajectory of the pitch . In any event, it's unlikely that it was a significant factor, given that Rogers was even more unhittable after washing off the substance than before.

The current version of the page should be acceptable to all involved: while an objective examination of the facts indicates that Kenny Rogers in all likelihood was using pine tar, that seems to be a more or less ubiquitous practice in cold-weather baseball, it probably gave him a negligible competitive advantage, and the fact that La Russa decided against pursuing the issue makes it a moot point. A bigger problem, I would think, is the failure of the umpires to enforce the rules (no matter how pointless) when cheating is suspected.204.161.5.200 02:55, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

The problem with that is La Russa didn't press the matter, so we will never know if he really was using pine tar unless we hear it from Kenny himself. Don't bring up speculation unless you specifically state it in the article.

Epsoul 00:49, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

I reserved my speculation for the talk page.

This portion of the article is entirely speculation, and should not be included. Little if any of this is verifiable, as I have heard conflicting reports of the incident from various news sources. Strongly recommend this be deleted. Also strikes me as strongly POV. Author seems quite convinced that Rogers had pine tar on his hand, and entry reflects that bias.152.131.8.133 13:12, 25 October 2006 (UTC)JJones

The author is not POV so much as the facts are. A remarkably similar substance was present in the exact same location on Rogers' hand throughout the playoffs. There is incontrovertible visual corroboration of this, and that corroboration has been playing ad nauseum on ESPN. And there's a pile of additional evidence as well.

As for eliminating the entire section, that's ludicrous. It's perfectly noteworthy (and verifiable as well, as anyone who has seen the pictures can attest), it just needs to be sourced a little better.

You can't prove that it was pine tar, because TLR didn't demand a search of Rogers. Therefore, nothing is provable, no matter now convincing it may look.

Epsoul 22:29, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

I cannot prove it beyond the tiniest shadow of a doubt, which is why the article doesn't just come out and say "it was pine tar". The overwehelming (and verifiable) evidence, however, is fairly reproduced there.

[edit] Other Uses

I've added some other uses, including furniture preservative, soap, and horse care. I also added a link to an article about the history of Scandinavian pine tar production. --Cosmoline 06:57, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Someone upload a picture and we're in good shape.204.161.5.200 06:34, 25 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Separate pages?

I think the whole discussion on pine tar in baseball should be on a separate page from the info on general and historical uses of pine tar. Someone (a vandal?) recently cut out much of the baseball/pine tar stuff. I did not return it yet because I frankly think the article is better without it, but certainly some baseball fans will disagree. Could someone take the initiative and create a page for pine tar uses in baseball?Ekotekk 07:14, 27 February 2007 (UTC)