Fired Angels worker sues, says he didn’t sell Go-Go Juice; he made Sticky Stuff

Troy Percival, former Angels pitcher, said he taught ‘Bubba’ Harkins how to make Sticky Stuff. Former Angels employee Brian Harkins, fired March 3 for allegedly providing illegal ball-doctoring substances to visiting pitchers, has filed a complaint against the team and Major League Baseball claiming he was made a “public scapegoat” in baseball’s efforts to crack down on the use of foreign substances. The concoction is referred to in the complaint as “Sticky Stuff.” “When the All-Star pitcher left the Angels to pitch for the Detroit Tigers in 2005,” the complaint reads, a description that fits former Angels closer Troy Percival, “he showed his new teammates how he used his rosin/pine tar mixture to get a better grip on the ball and improve his control.” As players changed teams through trades and free agency and became aware of the Sticky Stuff, the complaint says, they asked Harkins to prepare it for them as a courtesy. “It was a free offering for which Bubba often, but not always, was given a gratuity.” The complaint goes on to say that Harkins “was not a traitor to his team,” that many people in the Angels organization knew about the Sticky Stuff and that “year after year, a hair-cream sized jar containing the Sticky Stuff was included in the Angels’ bullpen bag, along with sunscreen and other sticky substances. Many Angels pitchers used it over the years.” Percival, reached by phone Sunday morning, acknowledged that he taught Harkins how to make the mixture in spring training, “mostly because it was so dry in Arizona and the balls were so slick out there, and they didn’t rub them up.” Percival, who pitched for the Angels from 1995 to 2004 before signing with Detroit, said he used the Sticky Stuff about 15 times a year, in cold weather and in “five or six cities that, come the ninth inning, would pack the seams with mud and you couldn’t grip the ball.