re: Kenny Rogers and the shineball

Tony LaRussa would indeed have a lot of nerve to go after a pitcher for cheating, given the fact that LaRussa won his only world series title with a steroids infected locker room of jose conseco and mark mcgwire in 1989 and two more pennants with the same group. Is it possible Dave "Smoke" Stewart or Dennis Eckersley found more steam on their fastball from steroids?

Likewise, McGwire may have been on the roids in 98 when he broke the home run record for LaRussa.

LaRussa has not exactly run a clean clubhouse free of cheating.

I agree with the webmaster--what was larussa supposed to do, call Rogers for cheating better than him?

the list of modern pitchers who have used a spitter, shine ball, dirt ball or vaseline ball is extensive, and includes many hall of famers, including Jim Bunning, Don Drysdale, Don Sutton, modernly Kevin Gross (who got caught with an emery board), Preacher Roe and many others.

C.F. Neyer and James recent book bill james guide to pitchers. extremely thorough documentation on modern spitballers.

Using the spitball, in the modern context, is a lot less serious than using steroids to pump up your fastball by 10 mph.

At least it's a recognized pitch and requires some skill to throw the thing and get away with it.

It doesn't take any skill to cork a bat or swallow human growth hormone or bend over for a needle.

Larussa should keep his mouth shut. his teams have done more to destroy the sport's integrity than the chicago black sox and pete rose combined.

--art kyriazis, philly

quit whining he knows how to pitch

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2006/news/story?id=2636485

La Russa speaks...

I think in this case, he would be calling him out for being absolutely horrible at cheating. He was caught, on television, with a 3" smear of crap on his hand. No one would consider that "cheating better than" anyone.

Trying to excuse this by saying "the cardinals pitchers might have been doing it too" is dishonest. Unless he has a video with pictures of something smeared on Adam Wainright's hand, "this unnamed coach" needs to issue an apology.

Lest we not forget the Tigers' very own Brian "Scuffy" Moehler who was caught cheating a few years back? Perhaps it runs in the organization?

Yes, Dan, I'm sure that's it. (Now where did I put my rolly-eyes icon?)

TLR put it in the simplest terms anyone can, so I'm not sure why people are still making a big fuss out of this. It was clearly obvious something was there, so TLR wanted it cleaned up, or he was going to undress him on the mound. Is this not clear?

- "I said, 'I don't like this stuff, let's get it fixed.' If it gets fixed let's play the game. It got fixed, in my opinion," he said.

- "If he didn't get rid of it, I would have challenged it. But I do think it's a little bit part of the game at times and don't go crazy," he said.

TLR knows how the game is played, and knows that sometimes pitchers, especially older pitchers who rely on movement and putting the ball in a specific location, break the rules. He also knows calling for Kenny to be undressed on the mound would have caused a lot of problems. TLR's biggest problem seems to be that he was blatantly cheating, not that he was cheating.

To say it runs in the organization is stupid. This is common place in the game of baseball. The only difference, really, is that most pitchers are a lot smarter about it.

Also, this whole fiasco wouldn't be complete without a quote from Gaylord Perry...

- "He did his thing," Perry said. "He got all the Cardinals thinking he was doing something with the ball. That's half the game right there."

If this is what everyone needs to try and make this series interesting, so be it. But my god this is getting overblown.