Rogers cheating!

I think the bottom line was they didn't catch him in the act and they can't do shit about it now.

 

This is an email some kid sent me last night about Rogers cheating:

If you have the ability to go back and watch the game against the Yankees where Rogers pitched then you will be able to see exactly what i am talking about. In the fourth inning of the yankees game rogers is facing Jason Giambi if you can watch that at bat. Several times it shows closeups of rogers' glove and his hand. This might be hard to describe on here but try to stay with me. Rogers takes the ball throwing it into his glove several times then very quickly and sly like, he takes his thumb and rub it on the outside of his glove where the logo is of his gloves is then rubs his thumb over the ball. When watching this the first time it looked like he was cheating but i didn't really know until later when they showed the logo of his glove and it was clearly discolored with what looks like pine tar. You can clearly see this when Rogers gets pulled from the game in the Eight. Oh, but here is the kicker, he then throws that huge breaking ball which was amazing in that game to strikeout Jeter. But this isn't the only time he got caught doing that on this night. Later in the 7th innning i believe he is facing bernie williams, the camera goes to the same view as earlier, Rogers does the exact same thing again and he proceeds to strike him out with a breaking ball. I know you might be thinking that this is weak infomation but if you go back and watch the tape, it is pretty obivious that he is cheating. Let me know what you think.

 

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061023/SPORTS02/610230450&GID=XQ5fI62HhcYJbCRbC7b9QLR/W57wkISOYy/Mr488WDw%3D

Good to see Albom crucifyng Kenny Rogers for cheating.... Good stuff.

I'm sure Barry Bonds is loving the consistency.

 

You're right. No one ever gets vilified for cheating except Bonds. [/Sammy Sosa}

 

Look, it's not like Rogers is above reproach here. The guy is 41, in recent years has been terrible during the end of the season and in the playoffs and now has put together the third longest stretch of scoreless postseason innings in baseball history. This is as unexpected a streak as some light-hitting shortstop suddenly clubbing homers all over the park.

And it's not like he hasn't been under suspicion before. In 2002, the Cleveland Indians claimed Rogers, then a Texas Ranger, scuffed the ball in a 3-2 victory.

"I know he was scuffing the ball," then-Indian Milton Bradley told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

For that, Bradley was sent a ball that had scuff marks, pine tar and the following note on it: "To Milton. All the best. Kenny Rogers."

Rogers said he didn't send it. He claimed then-teammate Rafael 'I never used steriods ever' Palmeiro did. freaking awesome

 

Maybe should have posted this here, instead of the MLB Playoffs thread:

LaRussa lost that game for the Cardinals. And if the Tigers win the WS, LaRussa lost the entire thing for the Cardinals last night.

Guess the genius is too good of friends with Leyland to do what any other right-thinking person would have done.

You MUST have Rogers checked WHILE ON THE MOUND if you have any idea he might be doctoring the ball. Even if they don't catch him (which seems highly unlikely), you get into his head something fierce. Hell, you couldn't have made him any better.

 

Now, the second half of this ridiculousness is that baseball subscribes to these strange codes – code of conduct, code of silence, code of who knows what?

It is why performance-enhancing drugs continue to fester in the sport. It is why La Russa could manage Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire and still be considered a "good baseball man." It is why it's sometimes OK to bean a guy but not other times. It is why the joke often is on the fans. It is why the old boys club – and La Russa and Leyland are old boys in every sense of the phrase – always protects itself.

How else can you explain La Russa, who has a long, rich history of gamesmanship and checking for gloves and foreign objects, just allowing the umpires to ask for a washing of the hand as a favor and then letting it end there?

"It's not important to talk about," La Russa said.

Can you imagine an NFL game where one player is suspected of using illegal equipment, the opposing coach complains, the ref sees something in line with said complaint and then just lets the guy take off the equipment and the coach is cool with it? Or do you see Bill Parcells strangling someone?

La Russa's failure to officially ask for an inspection baffled even his own staff and players.

"They're not arbitrarily going to go out there and check him," Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan said. "They have to be asked to check him."

Why didn't the Cardinals ask?

"You have to ask Tony that," Duncan said.

Do you believe it was just a clump of dirt on Rogers' hand and, moreover, that he didn't notice?

"Do I have to answer that?" Duncan replied.

 

Are we to seriously believe that LaRussa chose his friendship with Leyland over the good of his own team in the World Series?

If so, that's practically firable.

 

It's the code of playing 162 games day after day (plus preseason)I think. Especially between two 'old school' managers who are friends. Almost WWE/Vince McMahon like isn't it?

 

That is completely unacceptable then.

 

This was the baseball equivalent of a two-footer to win the Masters. A first-and-goal in the last minute of the Super Bowl. Pick any other sporting equivalent of a gimme that you want.

Here's what you had in play:
1. A pitcher who has suddenly turned into Christy Mathewson, who LaRussa's coaches and players belive is cheating.
2. By the way, the pitcher is a noted hothead and often loses control of his emotions (see: cameraman, attacked)
3. Apparent visual evidence of said alleged cheating.
4. Rules which state cheating pitchers are ejected and suspended 10 games.
5. A manager who loves gamesmanship, but is best buds with the opposing manager.

 

I'd love to see this confirmed (or at least refuted) before the Fox open to the next game. Who will have the cajones to check it out?