Tuesday, October 24, 2006

Poopgate

As X pointed out, there's big news about the steroids in the NFL; the ~450 articles on it show it's gotten some attention. But compare this to the 2200 articles on the mysterious brown stuff (with no proof of any wrongdoing!) on Kenny Rogers' hand. Yes, yes, I know, World Series, Sanctity of the Game, etc. But there were at least as many articles were written about Sammy Sosa's corked bat in a meaningless game. I agree the double standard is ridiculous.

Stil, I've decided: I don't care. I follow only baseball closely, and want the one sport I follow to be relatively free of cheating and scandal; I try not to let it bother me if the fans and the media and Congress completely ignore the ridiculousness in the NFL...because fans and the media and Congress are stupid.

I don't have much to add about the Kenny Rogers thing - the evidence is all circumstantial, but it's pretty damning. The discrepancies in everyone's stories didn't make much sense, and the cap thing discovered by Uni Watch is what convinced me. But whatever. What I can't stand is argument that "Well, he pitched really well after cleaning his hands, so it's no big deal." Talk about a great ethical standard. So if Barry Bonds stops using steroids, and passes Hank Aaron, apparently we're supposed to ignore all the steroid use from before?

On a related note, Jeff Passan quotes Todd Jones (who's the reason Kenny Rogers is my second-least favorite Tiger) admitting to he's used pine tar. "It's whether you think it's cheating or not." Awesome.

Update: apparently everyone's doing it. Well, that's exciting. It would certainly explain why LaRussa and MLB aren't making a big deal about it. Double awesome.

6 comments:

  1. Is it pretty safe to assume that if this happened in Boston, that LaRussa would be fired if they do not end up winning the WS. There was/is/will be so much scrutiny that he was asleep at the wheel. STL is pretty passionate about baseball, but definitely does not have the negative energy.

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  2. Great quote from the NYT:

    "Detroit Free Press sports columnist Mitch Albom made light of suggestions that Kenny Rogers, the Tigers’ pitcher, had a strange, dark substance on his hand early in Game 2 of the World Series.

    Albom told his listeners that the controversy was the result of reporters with 'too much time on their hands.' He chuckled when telling of how he shook Rogers’s hand after the game and found no foreign substance on it after the left-hander pitched eight shutout innings in a 3-1 victory.

    He did not mention that standard practice is to shake with the right hand."

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  3. Fox is so CORNY... Brandon Inge's bat trick? Please come now.

    (Carpenter got lucky with that inning)

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  4. Mookie, mookie, moookie.... Preston...

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