The Gamblers cards were dealt cleanly!
By Punch N. Judy
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news
Serving as the smoke that rooted me out of my winter hole, the Heckler’s recent post has ol’ Punch seeing red if not his own shadow.
At the time of the whole Kenny Rogers pine tar incident I must admit to being mildly perturbed. What was this mystery substance all over the now unhittable lefty’s fingers? Was he actually throwing a spitball in this day and age where every movement on the field of play is caught by a multitude of cameramen just waiting to pounce? An ejection and perhaps a five game suspension were sure to follow game two of the 06’ World Series.
Alas, after a minor uproar in the next day’s paper the episode was more or less swept under the rug. The reasons for this are many as you will soon read, but speaking as a former pitcher myself who hopes to launch a comeback this season, I gotta say I doubt a complete game shutout is in the offing if only I invest in a can of stickum.
While the Gambler’s explanation of the offending substance was pretty lame, (oh sure it was merely soil adorning those digits) the fact that it wasn’t used on the baseball itself was enough for me to let him off the hook. Had even one ball showed signs of a smudge the jig truly would have been up. However, as we all know the method to Rogers’ madness lay in his pursuit of a better grip. For this may I recommend perhaps dousing the pitching hand in cola prior to each inning.
Although many people played the gamesmanship card, I certainly wasn’t one of them. The fact is, what Rogers did simply wasn’t against the rules as of last year. Major League Baseball has however adopted a measure effective this year that does address foreign substances anywhere on a defensive player’s person. It’s called covering their butts, folks.
No less an authority on this issue than Gaylord Perry all but ruled out any chicanery on Rogers’s behalf. When Perry first saw what the rest of us did in game two, he became giddy in thinking that he had found a kindred soul in the Tiger ace. Upon further review however, Perry defended Rogers by saying that while a better grip can be had by using pine tar, it would take a hurler “loading up” the ball for it to alter a thrown pitch. Heck, Gaylord seemed a bit miffed in exonerating poor Rogers.
Recently, Yankee pitching coach Ron Guidry in discussing Philip Hughes, alluded to the prospect’s wildness by saying that Hughes needed to grip the ball tighter and that maybe he needed “little pine tar” on his hand. Oops!
In reviewing Rogers’s dominance in the NY Daily News, Mike Lupica hinted that an illegal substance may indeed have helped Rogers in the playoffs. Throwing between three and seven mph harder than normal, Lupica thinks the Gambler may well be on Balco’s Special Old as he continues to improve his game long into twilight.
Now that my friends, would be cheating.