Gerrit Cole didnt have a good answer to a question from the New York Posts Ken Davidoff Walker Buehler Jersey in his Zoom pre s conference on Tuesday afternoon, mostly because there wasnt a good answer available for the Yankees ace.The veteran columnist point-blank asked him: Have you ever used Spider Tack while pitching?If he saidyes hes po sibly setting himself up for a suspension, as MLB prepares to crack down on pitchers who use illegal substances to increase spin rates on their pitches. If he saidno he would almost certainly be lying (theres no proof of that yet, but lots of evidence and testimony that says he has). And the truth almost always comes out in situations like these.So Cole gave a long pause, then said, I dont quite know how to answer that, to be honest.He answered without answering, of course.Watch for yourself:Gerrit Cole on if he ever used Spider Tack while pitching:"I don't quite know how to answer that, to be honest...If MLB wants to legislate some more stuff, that's a conversation that we can have" Yankees Videos (@snyyankees) Maybe the most surprising thing is how caught off-guard Cole looked when he was asked the question. Its a bit stunning, actually. The topic has been dominating baseball conversations the past week or so, and even if Cole himself chose to tune out the outside world during the baseball season po sible, sure someone with the Yankees had to give him a heads-up that this topic would be Los Angeles Dodgers Jersey broached.Remember what ?Is it a coincidence that Gerrit Coles spin Andre Ethier Jersey rate numbers went down (Thursday) after four minor-leaguers got suspended for 10 games? Is that po sible? I dont know. Maybe," he said. "At the same time, with this situation, theyve let guys do it.Zero chance this wasnt going to be brought up.Heres the truth of the situation: Cole almost certainly has used Spider Tack or something similar to improve his grip on the baseball and increase his spin rates, making the ball move more and, therefore,making it harder for batters to make contact. But hes certainly not the only one. Although we dont have numbers, its absolutely plausible likely, probably that more than half of the pitchers in baseball use something MLB would categorize as illegal.Because heres another truth: Baseball has long turned a blind eye to the rule-breakers on the mound. As long as pitchers werent too obvious about it, as long as they tried to hide it, the practice would be allowed. The powers-that-be ignored the i sue until it could no longer be ignored.That Ross Stripling Jersey sounds familiar, right? In baseballs "steroid era," no definitive action was taken until the homerun record started to fall. And not just the most players to hit 40 homers in a year record, but when the fabled 60-home run mark started to be bypa sed in earlyto mid-September, something was finally done to effectively addre s the i sue.Same thing here.Spin rates have gone through the roof, and batting averages have plummeted to historic levels. Baseball has never been a thrill-a-second sport, but an exce s of strikeouts has started to make even the most hard-core fans grow weary. I mean, were a week into June and seven starters have sub-2.00 ERAs. And how about this fact: 29 starters are averaging more than 10 strikeouts per nine innings.Nolan Ryan, the strikeout Max Muncy Jersey king of all strikeout kings, only topped 11.0 in two seasons in his epic 27-year career. Yeah. Historic things are happening, and MLB is finally preparing to take action.This might have been the first time Colewas asked point-blank about using an illegal substance, but it will not be the last. And he wont be the only one.