They showed a closeup on the news this morning. I believe him. Besides, people overestimated the ability of foreign substances. I can see if it was like Vaseline or something, it might make a small difference, but pitchers can blow into their hands, and then rub the ball, as long as they are off the mound at the time. A ball can get scuffed hitting the dirt on an infield grounder. Etc. The fact is, he pitched like a champ last night. People can hate him all they want, but he still outpitched the Cards lineup.
LaRussa is the fool. All he had to do was ask the ump to check his hand. I like this kind of cheating. It is a lost art. I don't view it in a bad light like corking a bat, or juicing up. He did it right out in the open, and they could have nailed him. I guess Tony's shades are a tad too dark.
Glavine did basicly the same thing to the cardnals lineup and they are simular style pitchers. It may just be a case that a pitcher who controls location and speeds is a poor matchup for the cards. If he was going to cheat don't you think he would have done it against the brutal yankee line up?
Whether he cheated or not, the "stain" on his hand was gone by the 2nd inning. Not much of a help to just cheat in the 1st inning. I doubt he cheated, but who knows, Sosa had cork in his bat.....
Kenny done cheated on his woman many a time, not to mention Texas Hold 'Em. Gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away, know when to run.
He offed the Yankees, that's good enough for me. He can use Bugs Bunny's rubber band ball now for all I care.
he's full of crap. Notice how his story differs from his own manager's. He's a liar. But it's La Russa's own fault. He should've gone to the umpire during the inning and gotten the Ass Gambler thrown out.
He did have the same "clump of dirt" on his hand vs. the Yankees. It was all over Sportscenter. Watch the video: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=wojciechowski_gene&id=2635618
I've been suspecting this for a while. I knew that Rogers was not capable of pitching at this level in the playoffs. I hope there is a Game 6 so we get to see him get shelled for once.
Interesting. I haven't watched the film yet because I'm at work, but it does slightly change my opinion if this is not the first time he has been caught with something suspicious. What do the "experts" believe it is though? I just think too much is being made of it anyway. There isn't much you can do to a baseball to affect it's movement without the proper throwing motion. Some Vaseline may help a ball dip a tiny bit more. A good deep scuff can help a breaking ball dive a bit more, but you have to be realistic too. This isn't 1985 anymore. I can't remember off the top of my head how many baseballs are used on average in a game, but it's at least over 20. That's a lot of balls. Even if a pitcher managed to dig in a good scuff after 10 or so pitches, that ball would almost surely be out of play within the next 3 or 4 pitches. Add to that, there is no guarantee that the ball a pitcher doctors will be out of play at the end of an inning. You may get lucky and the end result is a grounder that the first baseman takes back to the dugout, or a flyball to left that the LF chucks into the stands, but it's a pretty big risk, with very little benefit. By the same token, the final out could be a K, and that ball winds up rolling back to the mound for the next pitcher to take a look at. Corking your bat makes a difference. Doping up on HGH makes a difference. Scuffing a baseball these days is almost inconsequential to the pitch. If you can't throw a slider or curve with your arm at the same angle as your fastball, it's going to get hit. No amount of doctoring a ball is going to change that. (Besides, I'd probably applaud Rogers for attempting to scuff a ball, given the way Pujols must be taking double-doses of HGH.)
I never played little league, but that clump of shit on kennys hand helped him get better breaks on his pitches ?
It gives Mike and the Mad Dog a way to ignore a Jets win with no Giants and no NY baseball going on. Because of course everyone in the listening area cares much more about Kenny Rogers' hand than we do about the fucking JETS! Francesa is still just sore because his Yankmees lost.
M&M aren't the worst. The damn Daily News today had the FULL BACK PAGE with Kenny's picture on it. And on the FRONT of the paper, in a bar about an inch and a half tall, it "mentioned" the Jets winning. It didn't even bother with a catchy tag line either. The Jets get absolutely no respect whatsoever in this city. It's disgusting.
