You can say what you want about Kenny Rogers. Sure he’s a hotheaded cameraman abuser who may or may not have cheated in the first inning of last night’s game 2 of the World Series, but he’s been at it for 19 years and the bottom line is, he wiped whatever-the-heck that was off his hands after the first inning and still threw seven more shutout innings against Pujols and company.
The 41-year-old leftie has been virtually unhittable this postseason, but a smudge of brown stuff on his hand has fueled his naysayers and Cardinals fans longing for the world title, a championship Rogers has gotten in the way of.
But except for Rogers’ existing enemies and people who love Sir Albert, no one really seems phased by the possibility of impropriety. The media is focusing on the old man’s stellar pitching of late. The “dirt’ creates scandal, so the media has obviously talked about it, but this isn’t exactly BALCO. Today’s Sports Illustrated report on the subject indicated all parties involved seemed to shake it off, so to say.
Rogers insisted he merely had a scrape of dirt on his hand that he wiped off upon realization. That was enough to satisfy both sides’ coaches and home plate umpire, Alfonzo Marquez, who noticed it first and asked Rogers to clean up.
“Dirt is not a foreign substance,” Palermo said. “That’s what we play on. That’s the playing surface.”
Even Aaron Miles, a Cardinals infielder, admitted Rogers threw good pitches all game, whether he had dirt/pine tar on his hand or not:
“Somebody said they thought they saw pine tar on him. That’s about it,” he said. “Whether he got rid of it, or he never had it in the first place, we don’t know. His stuff was good all game.”
And his stuff was good all game, and it’s been good throughout the playoffs where he enjoys a 3-0 record. The four-time All-Star has 207 regular season wins over 19 seasons. He was 17-8 this year, which tied for his second best regular season win total.
The buzz around him isn’t all that bad. No one is looking to put an asterisk on his stats and he’s a probably hall of famer. If he did doctor the ball, he’s as stupid as the golfer in the HDTV commercials, if not then he should learn to wash his damn hands.
