The View from the Couch - by Gavin McDougald!
October 25th, 2006 - Shocked
?I?m shocked??
?Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!?
So said Captain Renault in Casablanca, and then immediately thereafter collected his winnings.
I was reminded of that scene many times these past few days watching the reactions to the ?alleged? cheating in the World Series.
Why is the sports world ?shocked?? I mean, wasn?t it pretty obvious? Wouldn?t it have been more shocking if it weren?t cheating? This is Kenny Rogers we?re talking about after all. The same feller who, before the playoffs began, sported the highest career postseason ERA in the history of baseball. The same feller who then miraculously pitched 23 consecutive scoreless innings this October.
The same Kenny Rogers whose moral compass was revealed last season when, as a Texas Ranger, he was suspended for 20 games and fined $50,000 for angrily shoving a television cameraman, who as a result ended up in the hospital.
Kenny apparently has no issue with crossing the line, so when this 41-year-old man does something in a World Series that hasn?t been done in 101 years; something almost certainly has to be up.
And up it was. Up his sleeve most likely, or perhaps in his glove.
That goo on his left palm that was captured forever on video Sunday night was doing funny things to the baseball. St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa thought so and he asked the umpire crew to pass on the message that he?d like it to stop. Rogers washed off the stuff, whatever it was, in the second inning and everything was okee dokey. Except later in the fifth, it appeared that more of that ?something? was back in hand.
The end-result being Rogers became the oldest starting pitcher ever to win a World Series game. The numbers from Stats.com are unbelievable. Opposing hitters have a .029 batting average (1-for-34) with runners on base this postseason. Previous to this year, he had allowed 20 earned runs in 20 1/3 career postseason innings. In the 23 innings he?s thrown in 2006, he has allowed zero.
ESPN points out that only one other pitcher in history ever made three starts that long in one postseason without allowing a run. Christy Mathewson fired three straight complete-game shutouts in 1905.
Mathewson's unreal streak of 27 straight shutout innings in one postseason is now just four innings away for none other than Kenny Rogers.
What a turnaround huh?
As irksome as that might be to some ? that?s just baseball. If it were otherwise, all miraculous numbers ever recorded by any player would be suspect due to the advantage athletes can take over the system. Be it steroids, stealing signs or sneaking a peek at where a catcher is positioning his glove, baseball is plagued by cheating.
So are all sports in fact. Baseball however is a special animal because there is so much history of it. The king of cheating, Gaylord Parry appreciates what he saw on Sunday. He told USA Today, ?I call it taking advantage."
Some players, not all, take whatever advantage they can get to get ahead. It?s a good job being a baseball player. Players want to keep playing.
Performance enhancing drugs are just about the only thing modern day players have over previous generations. It?s not like some of the old timers wouldn?t have partaken if they could have. The great Mike Schmidt admitted in his book Clearing the Bases, "If I had played in the 1990s, I would have used steroids.?
Tigers closer Todd Jones admitted that he has ?in the past? used a little pine tar to improve his grip.
La Russa, in his presser at Busch Stadium said its just part of the game: ?Pitchers use some kind of sticky stuff to get a better grip from the first day in spring training to the last side session of the World Series."
So why the uproar? Maybe because this time Kenny Rogers, one of the media?s least favorite players, is the one doing to cheating, and the records he?s taking on are the legendary Christy Mathewson?s. But who know what Christy used to do to the baseball? There?s not too much photographic evidence from back then.
"The sad thing is, people are going to talk about dirt on his hand instead of the way he pitched in Game 2 of the World Series," Tigers coach Andy Van Slyke said.
"There's a player in Cooperstown [the aforementioned Gaylord Perry] who wrote a book about how he cheated. I'm not saying that Kenny cheated. That's not what I'm saying."
Gaylord Perry is however:
"I loved it. I was crackin' up. I was pullin' for him ? 'Go, Kenny, you've really got 'em now.'"
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Get your wagers in on World Series action here!
October 25th, 2006 - Shocked
?I?m shocked??
?Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!?
So said Captain Renault in Casablanca, and then immediately thereafter collected his winnings.
I was reminded of that scene many times these past few days watching the reactions to the ?alleged? cheating in the World Series.
Why is the sports world ?shocked?? I mean, wasn?t it pretty obvious? Wouldn?t it have been more shocking if it weren?t cheating? This is Kenny Rogers we?re talking about after all. The same feller who, before the playoffs began, sported the highest career postseason ERA in the history of baseball. The same feller who then miraculously pitched 23 consecutive scoreless innings this October.
The same Kenny Rogers whose moral compass was revealed last season when, as a Texas Ranger, he was suspended for 20 games and fined $50,000 for angrily shoving a television cameraman, who as a result ended up in the hospital.
Kenny apparently has no issue with crossing the line, so when this 41-year-old man does something in a World Series that hasn?t been done in 101 years; something almost certainly has to be up.
And up it was. Up his sleeve most likely, or perhaps in his glove.
That goo on his left palm that was captured forever on video Sunday night was doing funny things to the baseball. St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa thought so and he asked the umpire crew to pass on the message that he?d like it to stop. Rogers washed off the stuff, whatever it was, in the second inning and everything was okee dokey. Except later in the fifth, it appeared that more of that ?something? was back in hand.
The end-result being Rogers became the oldest starting pitcher ever to win a World Series game. The numbers from Stats.com are unbelievable. Opposing hitters have a .029 batting average (1-for-34) with runners on base this postseason. Previous to this year, he had allowed 20 earned runs in 20 1/3 career postseason innings. In the 23 innings he?s thrown in 2006, he has allowed zero.
ESPN points out that only one other pitcher in history ever made three starts that long in one postseason without allowing a run. Christy Mathewson fired three straight complete-game shutouts in 1905.
Mathewson's unreal streak of 27 straight shutout innings in one postseason is now just four innings away for none other than Kenny Rogers.
What a turnaround huh?
As irksome as that might be to some ? that?s just baseball. If it were otherwise, all miraculous numbers ever recorded by any player would be suspect due to the advantage athletes can take over the system. Be it steroids, stealing signs or sneaking a peek at where a catcher is positioning his glove, baseball is plagued by cheating.
So are all sports in fact. Baseball however is a special animal because there is so much history of it. The king of cheating, Gaylord Parry appreciates what he saw on Sunday. He told USA Today, ?I call it taking advantage."
Some players, not all, take whatever advantage they can get to get ahead. It?s a good job being a baseball player. Players want to keep playing.
Performance enhancing drugs are just about the only thing modern day players have over previous generations. It?s not like some of the old timers wouldn?t have partaken if they could have. The great Mike Schmidt admitted in his book Clearing the Bases, "If I had played in the 1990s, I would have used steroids.?
Tigers closer Todd Jones admitted that he has ?in the past? used a little pine tar to improve his grip.
La Russa, in his presser at Busch Stadium said its just part of the game: ?Pitchers use some kind of sticky stuff to get a better grip from the first day in spring training to the last side session of the World Series."
So why the uproar? Maybe because this time Kenny Rogers, one of the media?s least favorite players, is the one doing to cheating, and the records he?s taking on are the legendary Christy Mathewson?s. But who know what Christy used to do to the baseball? There?s not too much photographic evidence from back then.
"The sad thing is, people are going to talk about dirt on his hand instead of the way he pitched in Game 2 of the World Series," Tigers coach Andy Van Slyke said.
"There's a player in Cooperstown [the aforementioned Gaylord Perry] who wrote a book about how he cheated. I'm not saying that Kenny cheated. That's not what I'm saying."
Gaylord Perry is however:
"I loved it. I was crackin' up. I was pullin' for him ? 'Go, Kenny, you've really got 'em now.'"
Cheers - Gavin McDougald - AKA Couch
Get your wagers in on World Series action here!
