Monday, October 23, 2006

The Gambler strikes Again



Kenny Rogers pulled off another amazing pitching performance last night. That is now three consecutive games in which he has allowed zero runs. He is approaching the playoff record for consecutive scoreless innings in one year, which has been held by Christy Matthewson for about 100 years. Christy's innings all came during the World Series, but it is undeniable that Rogers has pitched three gems in a row.

During the first inning of last night's game it became apparent that there was some foreign substance on Rogers' pitching hand. The pictures show something that is clearly not supposed to be there. The Cardinals noticed it and alerted the home plate umpire. He had a conversation with Rogers and told him to wash the substance off. In a strange move, Rogers later denied that the umpires had spoken to him about this. Anyway, the substance was removed and he went on to pitch seven more scoreless innings. I've never known that Kenny Rogers was a pitcher who threw a spitball but here is something I found on SI. com:

"Someone who used to be on one of Rogers' teams told me late Sunday night that Rogers preferred to wear dark uniforms at home to camouflage any substances of interest (though he was in Tigers white during his masterful eight shutout innings). And someone from FOX said tape from previous games this postseason showed a similar discoloration on his hand."

Kenny claimed that the substance on his hand was dirt. However it certainly doesn't look like dirt to me. You can judge for yourself from the pictures. If that's dirt, then the Tigers are apparently mixing in some manure with their dirt. I guess I can't accuse Kenny of anything, but when a pitcher who has been consistently slightly better than average for his career, suddenly turns into Cy Young then...screw it, I'm accusing him of putting stuff on the ball. There, I've said it. The Gambler is a cheater. I know it's going to sound like sour grapes because he shut down the Yankees, but he also shut down the A's and now the Cardinals. There is something rotten in Denmark or in this case, Detroit.

I can only hope that the series gets to game 6 because Rogers is scheduled to pitch in that game. It would be one the most scrutinized pitching performances in recent history. I think FOX would have about 50 cameras trained on Rogers to try and record him putting anything extra on the baseball. Kenny is known as the Gambler though (mostly because of the song and it has practically nothing to do with his style of pitching) and as the song goes, "you gotta know when to hold 'em, Know when to fold 'em", and if he was putting something a little extra on the ball, now is the time to throw those cards away.

I guess I could just be a good sport about this and congratulate Kenny for his spectacular run of success, but I'm a small, petty man and I can't let it go. Kenny is cheating. I don't know how, but he is. I can only hope that he is caught and embarrassed on national TV. Perhaps he made a deal with the devil and for that his soul will be banished to eternal damnation. Somehow that's still not enough for me though. He needs to pay for his failure as a Yankee. And no, I'm not being too harsh.

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1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

ARod still blows. Isn't there a 3rd baseman in Jpan we can sign?

12:48 PM  

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