The Rogers saga continues
posted in World Series, players |I thought about posting more on The Kenny Rogers Mystery. Apparently so did everyone else. (Quick hat-tip to Bilfer’s headline!) I thought about doing a roundup type thing. But the gist of it is, The Cutoff Man did a great job on that. (I’m sure some Cardinals blogs did a nice job too, feel free to leave a link in the comments).
There’s a lot of sanctimonious garbage out there. (By the way, this Deadspin link sums it up. Baseball is in dire danger of losing its soul every controversy, while nothing sticks to football). There’s a very intriguing article about Rogers’ use of a different hat. (I’m interested to know if he did this in Texas, as well. Uni watch only did half its job). And there’s a column by former ESPN.com-er Dan Shanoff speculating this is nothing but a made-for-tv hoo-ha. (hat-tip Big Al on the Shanoff column).
He said he brought the smudge to the umpires’ attention, but did not demand they search Rogers. They didn’t. La Russa also said the Cardinals were aware Rogers had a similar spot earlier in the postseason.
“I said, ‘I don’t like this stuff, let’s get it fixed.’ If it gets fixed let’s play the game. It got fixed, in my opinion,” he said.
“If he didn’t get rid of it, I would have challenged it. But I do think it’s a little bit part of the game at times and don’t go crazy,” he said.
The problem is, we don’t have any concrete evidence of a thing. Speculation is lovely and all, but what’s it get you? Nothing. The people on the field did nothing, and they were aware of the situation. They have the most stake in the outcome of the World Series. It’s the “experts” who are driving this thing. Experts are a dime a dozen. Everyone knows one. Everyone is one. And suddenly everyone is an expert at interpreting an image flashed on the screen by Fox. I’m not going to buy into any of it.
UPDATE: An anonymous bullpen coach who spoke to SI’s Jon Heyman thinks Rogers used pine tar, but La Russa’s own pitchers would be mad if this opened up the door to greater scrutiny.
“I bet Tony La Russa’s pitchers are mad at him for saying anything, because a lot of guys do it, and I’d be surprise if there’s a whole staff of guys who don’t do it. In fact, I’d say a majority of guys use one of the three — shaving cream, suntan lotion or pine tar. They can’t like him ratting out the other team when everyone does it. Maybe he had to say something because it’s the World Series, it’s on TV and he probably has to answer to his owner.
“But you’ll notice he didn’t continue to talk about it, and he instructed his guys not to talk about it. They probably have no interest in catching Rogers because if they do then the umpire is looking at everyone.’
It also touches on how the MLB will be tarred and the NFL’s steroids problem will be swept under the rug.
Unless this story develops into one where something ACTUALLY happens, I’m not going to post about it again. La Russa said “don’t go crazy,” that’s good enough for me.
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