Monday, October 23, 2006
No Sweep for the Cards
Entering the World Series, there was much talk of a possible Tigers sweep. Then the Cards won game one. So, sweep for the Cards? Nope, Rogers and his mysteriously brown smudged hands, won game two for the Tigers. Series tied 1-1. Rogers great work smeared by some odd brown substance (see ESPN Photo).
That brown oil smear on Rogers' hand? According to Rogers, it was dirt. Is the dirt especially liquidly in Detroit? Rogers pitched a great game, giving up just two singles and three walks in 8 innings of work, but now because of that mysterious brown sludge on his pitching hand, an asterisk has to be attached to the game. Did Rogers cheat? Did he not cheat? You would hate for the guy to pitch an outstanding game, and get labeled a cheater, if he didn't cheat, but you (whoever "you" is) would hate for him to be able to get away with cheating.
Cheating, of course, isn't new to the World Series, and sometimes the cheating is an attempt to win (Jay Howell, though that was the NLCS, not the World Series; or any overly muscular home-run hitter who has played in the World Series and has the shadow of steroids or the like marring his career ("his", am I being sexist? Unless someone went undetected, even MLB baseball players named Christy are male) or an attempt to lose (see: 1919 Chicago Black Sox, or see the movie "Eight Men Out").
The Reds ended up with a World Series in 1919, but with the public ("say it ain't so Joe") aware that it might have been, should have been, the White Sox World Series victory. If the Tigers win the series, will they be marred by this mysterious brown substance? Will the world continue to argue about the "tainted" Tigers-Cards series 90 years later? Only time will tell.
That brown oil smear on Rogers' hand? According to Rogers, it was dirt. Is the dirt especially liquidly in Detroit? Rogers pitched a great game, giving up just two singles and three walks in 8 innings of work, but now because of that mysterious brown sludge on his pitching hand, an asterisk has to be attached to the game. Did Rogers cheat? Did he not cheat? You would hate for the guy to pitch an outstanding game, and get labeled a cheater, if he didn't cheat, but you (whoever "you" is) would hate for him to be able to get away with cheating.
Cheating, of course, isn't new to the World Series, and sometimes the cheating is an attempt to win (Jay Howell, though that was the NLCS, not the World Series; or any overly muscular home-run hitter who has played in the World Series and has the shadow of steroids or the like marring his career ("his", am I being sexist? Unless someone went undetected, even MLB baseball players named Christy are male) or an attempt to lose (see: 1919 Chicago Black Sox, or see the movie "Eight Men Out").
The Reds ended up with a World Series in 1919, but with the public ("say it ain't so Joe") aware that it might have been, should have been, the White Sox World Series victory. If the Tigers win the series, will they be marred by this mysterious brown substance? Will the world continue to argue about the "tainted" Tigers-Cards series 90 years later? Only time will tell.
