The World Series has started, and it seems that things were going normal until a few days ago. I was watching one of the TVs at the Galen Center (where all the athletes eat on the USC Campus) while having dinner, and I saw this special on one of the news channels about the pitcher from the Detriot Tigers.
photo from ESPN.com
It seems that Kenny Rogers, the pitcher from the Detriot Tigers, had this “mystery smudge” on his throwing hand during Game 2 against the St. Louis Cardinals. The umpires of the game asked Rogers to wipe off his hands and clean whatever was on his hands. The series between the Tigers and the Cardinals are tied. Tony La Russa, manager for the St. Louis Cardinals, talked about talking to the umpires of the game about Rogers’s smudge on his hand:
“I have a decision to make, and I decided that I was not going to be part of the BS where I was going to ask the umpire to go to the mound and undress the pitcher. Now, what was I going to do? I alerted him. I said, ‘I hope it gets fixed. If it doesn’t get fixed, then I’ll take the next step.'”
It seems that what the fans and other sports analysts are calling this “crisis” is “Smudgegate.” Why? Some are accusing Rogers of using pine tar on his hands to scruff the baseballs, which others consider to be cheating. Some say that they actually say Rogers put on the pine tar on his hands. What does Rogers say about this? He said that it was mud, resin, spit, and dirt. While watching this special on TV, they did compare the picture of before and after the incident– but to me, it didn’t look like dirt because it was really shinny and looked slick on his hand. Trust me, I have seen my days with the mud and dirt with throwing the shot put– I loved those days when I was throwing with Dad in the mud after it had rained– I would sometimes lose my shot! 🙂
Sports should be fun, and when people try to get an extra advantage in the game, it’s hard to take if you are the person or team that is being affected by it. It’s like competing with someone that is using steroids or other drugs– you feel cheated. We should all have fun in the sports that we play in, and there are bigger and better things to do than talk about someone having a “smudge” on their hand. Now people know what to look for in the future when Rogers does play against them. 🙂
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