St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright admitted on Monday that during the 2019 baseball season, he had used a foreign substance to help boost his pitching for approximately 6-7 games, but eventually stopped and has never gone back to using it since.

“I’ve got nothing to hide. What Bubba said is true. I tried it in 2019. Obviously, it didn’t work for me,” Wainwright said Monday. “You can check the order. I only had one order with that guy. I gave it away very soon afterward.”

Cardinals manager Mike Shildt praised Wainwright coming forward about his past usage and learning his lesson, bringing more to the table as to why Wainwright is a class act.

“Don’t you appreciate a man of integrity?” Shildt said. “He easily could have tried to alibi his way out of it in front of you and owned up to it. I got a lot of respect for a guy who stands up and says, ‘I gave it a whirl to see what it was all about.’ Didn’t like it and stood up and said it.”

For decades, using foreign substances has been a common occurrence by pitchers in baseball, but now, MLB is going to put a stop to it. MLB had issued its new policy on foreign substance usage on Tuesday, stating that they will suspend players for 10 days if they are caught using any foreign substance on the ball. Enforcement of the new policy will begin on Monday, June 21st.

Meanwhile umpires will be expected to check for foreign substances between innings under MLB’s new rules, and the rules could further be increased.

(Photo by Dilip Vishwanat/Getty Images)