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While it had no bearing on the outcome of the game, the Philadelphia Phillies and Florida Marlins engaged in a bit of interesting gamesmanship during the early stages of last night's game, which resulted in umpire Joe West's instructing Phillies starter Brett Myers to cover the tattoo that encircles his left forearm.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel described the interplay thusly: Early on, he noticed the Marlins' first- and third-base coaches' straying outside their respective boxes. Worried that they could be stealing signs, Manuel conferred with the umpires between innings and asked them to keep the Marlins coaches inside the coaching boxes.

Florida, apparently annoyed at the request, responded by asking the umpires to require Myers to cover up his tattoo, citing it as a distraction to the Marlins hitters.

The move is not unprecedented. It gained notoriety in 2004 when Major League Baseball began requiring then-Toronto reliever Justin Miller to cover his heavily inked arms with sleeves after receiving complaints that they distracted hitters.

"I don't even know what was going on," said Myers, who allowed 10 runs in four-plus innings of the Phillies' 14-8 loss. "Then [second-base umpire] Joe West came in after the inning and said I had to put on sleeves because of a tattoo. I've had it for 3½ years in the big leagues, and now someone says something about it. It's all trying to get in my head, but that didn't affect me. It wasn't that hot. I'm from Florida. It wasn't a big deal. It had nothing to do with the way I pitched."

Manuel emphasized that he wasn't accusing the Marlins of stealing signs.

"I wasn't trying to be a smart-aleck or anything like that," Manuel said. "I just thought, 'Hell, they could be getting the pitches, [the coaches] are standing so far back' . . . They got kind of upset because, they thought I was nit-picking."

Source: Philly.com