Picture this: your team signs a pitcher with some fairly high expectations. After a pretty mediocre season on a winning team, he is routinely run out to pitch critical, series turning Game 4's and without fail he puts the opposition on a merry-go-round and your team in a big, very critical hole. Then, this same pitcher lands on a team for another post-season, a team for which you have some rooting interest, and he almost single-handedly takes the team out of the playoffs with just dismal performances, including walking in the series losing run. Then this same guy becomes the self-satisfied ace of a team that routinely has no pitching, and has accolades heaped on him for fabulous first-half performances that are long forgotten (like his team) by October. And then he punches a camera man, apparently unprovoked. THEN, the guy gets his cash cow, signs for $8 mil at age 41, goes to the post-season and pitches the game of his life against the same team he nearly buried with his putricity in the post-season 10 years earlier. Picture that this is your team. Forget that maybe you hate the team and $200 million dollars and yadda yadda. Man, I really just don't have anything good to say about Kenny Rogers today. I tip my cap with appreciation for the performance to Verlander, and will to Bonderman if he closes the door today, but Rogers gets nothing but my disgust and ire. His curve ball was awesome last night, and he had Jimmy-Key-like craft. There. I said something nice. That physically hurt. BPP, we don't expect you to give Rogers the benefit of the doubt after the first inning. Those cameras were watching him from every angle for the rest of that game just waiting for him to do anything questionable, so they could make a bigger deal of it than they already did.
The original story that was linked to this thread was a box score and summary of the Detroit Tigers winning game 2 of the World Series. Somehow, the thread got twisted into the "Kenny Rogers Show". The man pitched a good game and the Tigers won the game, end of story.
Earlier this morning ESPN reported that Cardinal hitters had suggested that the only "weird" or "unnatural" movement of the ball was the velocity with which Rodgers was pitching. He was hitting 92-93 MPH instead of his usual 85-87MPH.
Well, TBH, I didn't apply the pine tar, as you have pointed out. But, seeing as you seem to have an opinion but haven't shared it with us, what do you think is on his hand? I do have an opinion, and it has nothing to do with what was or wasn't on Kenny Rogers' hand, because I don't know what it was, and neither do you. My opinion is this: if you don't know what the hell you're talking about, (and in this situation, you don't) you shouldn't make absolute declarations, because you could end up looking like a dumbass. Greg Maddux, Greg Maddux...don't make me say it a third time.
Hey Timmy, it's been 38 yrs get yourself a women and get over it. Betcha can't eat just one. Sorry, couldn't resist. Also, here's a link to to LaRussa's talk on Monday, which also happened to be booming out of the Busch Stadium loudspeakers as the Tigers were going through their drills. As for DirtGate PineTarGate, I'll say it also -- it wasn't dirt. Dirt doesn't discolour your hand in that manner. It was pine tar, it was cheating, it was removed and Rogers still handed my Cards their collective asses. Move on -- just make sure to have him checked if there's a Game Six.
I really, really hate Kenny Rogers in a totally unnatural, I-really-should-see-somebody-
about-this kind of way. That one would have made your point more succinctly, jojo (though it is certainly an exaggerated version of my real feelings). 1. Rogers success in this postseason is unprecedented in his career. 2. Rogers fits the profile, in almost caricature fashion, of the person and circumstance in which one would expect a pitcher to doctor the baseball a bit. 3. I suspected Rogers wasn't working clean before I heard about the "dirt." 4. He's been caught red-handed with something and his story is all over the place. 5. Few pitchers who are going to go the doctoring route come to the mound with only one trick. I am not hiding the fact that I dislike Kenny Rogers, but it is not my motive for suspicion. It is simply intensifying my desire to be suspicious of him. If it was a pitcher I liked and rooted for -- say, Jimmy Key, who was a very similar style of pitcher (although he was a lot better over his career) -- and he was pitching out of his mind and he got caught tar-handed, I would be equally suspicious, but highly unlikely to push the subject as much. I don't think, in this case, my personal feelings about Rogers discredits my argument. And the key to doctoring a ball is to be able to do it in plain sight without suspicion. You know, I once saw a guy pull a rabbit right out of a hat. the only "weird" or "unnatural" movement of the ball was the velocity with which Rodgers was pitching And he's on steroids. I knew it. (Okay. THAT was irresponsible.)
Listening to the conspiracy theororists regarding Kenny Rogers would have you believe that he was also spotted at the grassy knoll in Dallas in 1963. Apparently they have an axe to grind with their dislike of Kenny Rogers or, their favorite team is sitting at home watching the World Series like everyone else. Their only intention is to drag Kenny Rogers through the dirt, muddy his reputation and pinetar & feather him. The simple fact remains, Kenny Rogers pitched a good game and the Tigers won. I wash my hands.
Peek-a-boo must be a terrifying experience for some here. I must admit, these things scare the shit out of me.
