Ah yes, Mr. Kenny Rogers is in the news again. The 41-year-old Detroit Tigers pitcher has resurfaced from his prior life as a Texas Ranger where he shoved a television cameraman (see previous blog entry). Timing couldn't be more perfect. I told a friend (Ian M.) the other night that I should try to give Kenny Rogers a second chance.
That's changed now. Rogers pitched Game 2 of the World Series and was observed to have some kind of gunk, goo, pine tar, dirt, what have you, on his pitching hand. Mr. Wojciechowski of ESPN.com explains what's happened in his column "Rogers was masterful, but did he cheat?"
The New York Times compiled numerous sources of information into a few articles, one in particular that was quite conclusive. Besides the presence of the smudge, it seemed as though Mr. Rogers didn't know what was on his hand. I don’t understand why Kenny Rogers said he didn’t know the smudge was
there. This man’s livelihood IS his hands, and he’s telling me he not
once in the 1st inning (or in his previous 3 smudge-filled outings this postseason)
noticed there was a dark spot on his throwing hand? If I pitched for a
living I would be pretty darn careful with what happens with both of my
hands and I would definitely notice some goo or dirt or gunk on my
throwing hand. Come on, Kenny Rogers knows just as well as the rest of
us that he’s being scrutinized for his postseason performance — even
before the smudge on his hand. Wouldn’t he want to ensure that he
completed his feat of scoreless innings without help, without gunk, so
he won’t have to have an asterisk on his name in the record books? Or maybe Kenny Rogers
doesn’t care and knows that in the world of performance-enhancing drugs
in baseball, he can do whatever he pleases, without getting questioned
or caught.
Once again, shame on Major League Baseball. Kenny Rogers has had this gunk on his hand for 3 outings THIS postseason. How is it that this man pitched these previous outings and on his 4th attempt starting the game with this smudge on his hand, he's only noticed by people St. Louis Cardinal organization. And when the issue WAS raised, not one umpire or even an MLB official was shown on television to have examined Mr. Rogers' hand. The public relations department from the MLB must not have dared venture into the sub-40 degree weather to explain (or remedy) the situation. Too bad.
My friend Ian MacKenzie alerted me to another article that I must not overlook. SI.com's Jon Heyman interviewed some pitching coaches who explained that pine tar and other pitching aids are rampant in the major leagues. I especially enjoyed the part about each of the different substances used by pitchers today.
The whole issue puts me in a quandry. Why didn't Cardinals' manager Tony La Russa say anything? Why didn't an umpire look at Rogers' hand? Baseball fans can see that pitchers throw balls back to the umpire when the ball has a small scratch or bit of dirt on it. The whole incident has a haze around it. It's too bad that these guys have presumably been altering their performances for years. If that is the case, then how can one know where it stops? Is this going on in the minor leagues? MacKenzie states that the majority of steroids can be detected while changing the materials on one's hand -- thus affecting one's pitching -- is not as simple to detect. "The thing with doctoring baseballs...is that it's always been around, unlike steroids," MacKenzie wrote.
