What Happened To The Spitball?

Jonah Keri:

Whatever happened to the spitball?
A gambling scandal from 93 years ago goes down as the biggest black mark in the game's history … then another one keeps baseball's all-time hit leader out of the Hall of Fame to this day. Performance-enhancing drugs get outlawed … only to get linked, years later, to one of the game's biggest names. Sign-stealing triggers one of baseball's most unforgettable moments … and continues to swat new hornet's nests 60 years later.
Meanwhile, doctoring pitches helped extend the careers of countless fading arms throughout baseball history. More than a simple performance enhancer, it was damn fun. Anytime a suspected scuffer or greaser came to town, local media fired off breathless "Does He or Doesn't He?," "Will He or Won't He?" columns. Students of the game watched the pitcher's every move, looking for a fishy hand movement or sleeve swipe. A batter's dirty look as he walked back to the dugout was itself worth the price of admission. The mere threat of a spitball drove hitters batty, to the point where they'd get pissed if it wasn't thrown, given all the waiting and anguish they went through over the course of a game.
How and why did all of that vanish from the game?
"Bruce Sutter," said Mike Maddux, the Texas Rangers pitching coach and 15-year major league veteran whose own pitching career briefly coincided with the Hall of Fame reliever's. "He mastered the splitter. All of a sudden you had a pitch that had the same action you could get with the greaseball."

I remember how entertaining it was to watch Gaylord Perry psych out batters with all his antics, then throw a crazy 80 mph drop ball past them.  Good times. It's illegal, and not nearly as entertaining as watching Tim Wakefield or R.A. Dickey throwing knuckleballs, but it's also cool.  It's doubtful anybody could bring it back in today's high tech world.