That crap on Kenny Rogers' hand
You can smell the foul odor all the way to Iowa. Tigers' pitcher Kenny Rogers was caught "brown-handed" Sunday night in the World Series by FOX cameramen, commentators, and producers with what appeared to color man Tim McCarver to be pine tar on his pitching hand. A day of further investigation has produced similar pictures of Rogers pitching with dirty hands in the American League playoffs against both the Yankees and Athletics.What was that on his hand? Rogers says it was a combination of dirt and rosin, but if it was that, why did he have to go to the clubhouse to wash it off rather than just wipe it on his pants? And since when is dirt so shiny? My first gut reaction was that it was some kind of gooey sugar concoction, but then I'm in full Autumn mode right now and have been overdosing of late on carmel apples.
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Acquaintances of mine take note: If the St. Louis Cardinals lose this World Series in the coming week, you will be hearing about the Gambler's loaded dice for the rest of my life-- and probably yours as well.
Umpire supervisor Steve Palermo says the umpires were "proactive" about this whole rhubarb and asked Rogers to wash his hands between innings, but Rogers says they approached him only about his pacing on the mound. Huh? He says he washed his hands on his own. Of course TV cameras caught his thirdbaseman and one of his coaches, Andy Van Slyke, pulling him off the field and getting in his ear quickly after the frame ended. "This is not their first summer away from home," Palermo said of the umpires after the game.
Ok, cover ups aside, I don't call that being "proactive" anyway. Proactive is investigating the complaints of Cardinals players immediately, tossing Rogers out of the game on spot, and waiting for the league to hand down its ten game suspension. Even if the umpires didn't notice the hand themselves until after Rogers had sprinted back to the water closet, the least they could have done was check his cap and glove for contraband. And, by the way, Palermo said they did spot it but "observed" it to be dirt.
Rogers' snooty teammates and many commentators pointed out that Rogers continued to dominate last night's game even after the first inning and that vigorous bathroom scrubbing, but how do we know he didn't simply switch to vaseline or the old fashioned emory board? Cheaters cheat. Sports' premier uniform-focused blog, www.uniwatchblog.com, reports that Rogers wears a different cap than that of his teammates. His cap has a dark-colored underbill, rather than the standard gray. Detroit's closer Todd Jones said that Rogers has just been doing the same thing he's always done on the mound. No, he isn't. Prior to this year, Rogers had a career post-season ERA over 8.00. Now he's half a game away from breaking the all-time scoreless innings record in the post-season. If all we did was throw out the disputed first inning of Sunday's game, we still would have ourselves a tie game at 1-1 in Game 2. That first inning made the difference in the game, and for that inning, our pitcher had clean hands and theirs didn't.
And why the hell is Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa saying, "It's not important to talk about. He pitched very well"? That's not what his players were saying until he ordered them to stop talking publicly on the subject. What possible reason would LaRussa have for not having raced onto the field and demanding Rogers' ejection during that half inning? Instead, he waited for the third out, giving Rogers a chance to get Zestfully clean. LaRussa is a guy who's always looking for an edge. He's a guy who's always jockeying for a psychological advantage. At the very least, he could have gotten inside Rogers' head. In Tony's minor defense, it's only his job to bring the issue to the umpires' attention. After that, justice should be swift and merciless regardless of whether anyone on the Cardinals' side is pushing hard for punishment.
One of LaRussa's predecessors, Whitey Herzog, was crucified for doing just the opposite. His post-season teams were accused of letting bad calls and home field malfeasance become their undoing in two different World Series. Herzog said later in his book that his only regret about the 1985 World Series was that he didn't pull his team off the field after umpire Don Denkinger's infamous blown call. In retrospect, it probably didn't help when Herzog said after '85's Game 6 that his team shouldn't even have to show up for a Game 7, but at least he was fighting for everything he thought the Cardinals and their fans deserved. He didn't give a damn how he looked or sounded. If it ever comes out that LaRussa was hushing up his players or scaling back justifiable belligerence because he wanted to spare embarassment for the Tigers' manager, who happens to be one of his best friends, his days are over in St. Louis. I will do an Ozzie Smith and walk away myself, to return only upon LaRussa's departure, and I won't be the only one.
Collectively, members of the print media have expressed significant skepticism, even anger, over the umpires, players, and managers' contradicting accounts of this bizarre episode, but nothing like one would expect from a group of reporters obsessed for two years with rooting out cheaters, and quick to pass critical judgment on the league's home run heroes, often with much less visual evidence at their disposal than we have here, and upon players with much shorter rap sheets than Kenny Rogers. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch's chief steroid hunter, Bryan Burwell, today called the rule against intentionally "doctoring" the ball "a technicality," and the Detroit Free Press' Mitch Albom attempted to kill the story deader than his beloved mentor, saying that the media was "acting as if it had discovered a weapon of mass destruction, " and determining that "Rogers could have had a Slinky attached to the ball the way he was pitching."
We will yet get to the bottom of this story, which stands to be a true black eye for baseball. The Tigers will most likely need Rogers on the mound a second time in the Series, and this story becomes one much like the Mark Foley scandal in Congress-- that is, one that even the people who don't normally pay attention to the action can understand. Rogers' story fits too perfectly into that of a man who sold his soul to reverse a dismal post-season record.
posted by CM @ 5:38 PM
10 Comments:
LaRussa didn’t say much because he probably has a guilty conscience because of all of the steroids and other unethical performance enhancing substances his players have taken over the years. His success in Oakland made his reputation as a manager and that was fueled by Canseco and probably others on that team being full of steroids. I’d like someone to investigate how Eckersley turned his career around.
On a similar note, I always wonder about the pitchers who wipe their foreheads in between pitches in the summer. The combination of sweat and oil from their faces must be worse than Vaseline.
Looking forward to a similar post on November 8th about electronic voting machines and butterfly ballots if the Democrats don’t take enough seats in Congress. TA
Am I right that starting this year (or last?) pitchers aren't allowed to touch their face at all when they're on the mound? I remember hearing this in reference to Greg Maddux, who's always licking his fingers.
Believe it or not, I'm totally with Chris on this. Rogers is a scam. Watching TV today, it seems there's an "understanding" now that this was pine tar, but the ESPN reports I saw today made it sound like the Cardinals were OK with this, that guys in the Cards clubhouse were saying "off the record" it's no big deal because everybody does this. When did MLB decide this wasn't a serious thing? Answer: When the sport got a reputation for cheating. You don't have to be a conspiracy buff to see that the league will play this down and make it go away.
I never heard any of these media guys who are suddenly soft on cheating defending Jose Canseco: "Hey, he's a pretty muscular guy anyway. Steroids are no big deal - I'm sure he'd have hit a lot of homeruns anyway."
By far the dumbest aspect of this whole thing though is the people who defend Rogers by saying it's no big thing because he was just as dominate after he washed his hand. That's twisted logic to start with, but I know I'd be flying high too and have sky high confidence if I was as relieved as he no doubt was when he realized he'd gotten away with doctoring the baseball. I'll defend LaRussa for not playing this up - at least to his team - because it could (and still might) become a huge distraction.
Aaron, I really wish you wouldn't defend Tony LaRussa - ever - for any reason. The guy is the Atlanta Braves of managers. By my count, he now has 11 postseason appearances under his managerial belt and only 1 WS championship to show for it (pending 06 outcome). That is a horrible record for a supposedly great manager that is "always looking for an edge".
Ok, Rogers was probably cheating. I don't care - and you know why - because he's playing the Cardinals and I don't ever want them to win. Besides, wasn't there a Cardinals pitcher a couple years ago (under LaRussa) that had a cap covered with black stuff every time he pitched (supposedly dirt because he never changed hats).
I don't think there is a rule forbidding face touching. I saw Maddux do it all the time this year (would wipe his forehead under the bill of his cap).
I knew I was right. I even knew it was a former Cubs pitcher, although I don't remember him having a dirty hat when he pitched for the Cubs.
This is why Tony LaRussa did not put up a fight about the foreign substance. He does not think using pine tar for pitching purposes is a big deal.
Dave L, you have two players confused. Steve Kline, who never pitched for the Cubs-- who hated the Cubs in fact-- was the guy who never washed his cap. Of course, that doesn't mean that cap had illegal substances attached to it. Ballplayers in the thirties wore the same heavy flannel uniforms for entire road trips. If dirt was all we were concerned about, there would be no story. There's no rule against sweat or dirt, just like there was no rule against steroids. There IS however a rule against doctoring baseballs with foreign substances!
On the Julian Tavarez incident, to this day, we have no visual or physical proof of his crime since the umpire gave the "doctored" hat back to Tavarez rather than hold it for evidence.
Of course, Tavarez was not yet pitching under baseball's brightest lights in the World Series so he was easily tossed from the game and suspended, which is exactly what should have happened to Rogers. I won't defend Tavarez beyond the above statement, but he indisputedly served his time.
You can argue that everybody does it, but you can't dispute the fact that everybody who got caught doing it in the past also faced ejection and suspension-- even in the post-season, if you recall Dodgers pitcher Jay Howell in 1988. But now, all of a sudden, it's OK? I'd like to hear any of you fans of other teams try telling me you wouldn't be crying foul if this happened to your team. You couldn't do it with a straight face.
Not only would Rogers be able to continue pitching "with sky high confidence" after his brush with Floyd Landis-like infamy, but the umpires, in effect, also gave him the go-ahead to continue cheating.
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If the Democrats don't take enough seats in November-- and they won't-- it will be because they stand neither for nor against the war. But that doesn't excuse rampant right-wing voter fraud.
And can you imagine if it was Jeff Weaver who got caught with the dirty hand, someone with a flakier reputation and someone who wasn't front and center in "the great underdog story of the season?"
I think we all know he'd have been run in an instant-- and crucified, along with his McGwire-loving manager.
I 100% agree that if my team were in the same situation, I would be bitching up a storm. Of course, I would fully expect you to be doing what I am doing now and bringing up instances where my team cheated and telling me to quit whining.
After all, what are friends for?
I, on the other hand, am fair, impartial and completely reasonable in all instances. And I say Kenny Rogers is a scumbag.
So does one of your favorites, Bob Feller. The Iowa-born Hall of Famer was quoted in the Des Moines Register as saying, "I don't believe a word he (Rogers) says. I think he's a liar. He's trying to cheat and he got caught. It's hurting his character and reputation by lying about it.
"I don't like him personally, either. He's very emotional; he acts like a 16-year-old kid. I know him. And trust me, he's no charmer."
And Feller knows from charmers.
Nevermind. I like Kenny Rogers now.
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