[blueline]

Checking pockets isn’t enough. Pitchers have been hiding the substances on their hats or gloves or other sneaky places for years. It’s not like they just bring a jar of spider tack out there with them

[germinalphrase]

Why not do a face, hat, glove pat down? Boxers do it.

[spywaregorilla]

Are you going to do a chemical test of their hair and body surface too?

To be totally clear, you could do this, but it's going to start an arms race of trickery.

[dredmorbius]

The ancient Greeks had olympic athletes compete nude as a check against cheating.

[germinalphrase]

You’re escalating just a bit from “hey, you got any gunk on your hat, head, mitt?”

Watch an MMA match. It takes all of five seconds for a ref to run their hands over the competitors head, hands, etc.

Which is certainly better than… nothing.

[spywaregorilla]

It is better than nothing. But you've also got people going on and off the field frequently and a strong incentive to cheat. If your five second check is circumvented it's no longer that much better than nothing.