From ESPN
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2006/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2636469
Why did LaRussa chose not to address the incident with the UMP and his rationale?
As it turned out, however, this story took on a whole new life Monday. Thanks mostly to La Russa.
Sunday night, in the heat of the moment, he'd dodged all the questions about what he thought was on Rogers' hand, what he said to the umpires and why he didn't demand that Rogers be checked for, well, who knows what -- clumps of dirt? pine tar? weapons of mass destruction?
But by Monday afternoon, La Russa said he'd "had a chance to think about it." And he was ready to explain (cue the trumpets) his side of this saga.
He is one of those guys, he philosophized, who happens to "believe in the purity of the competition." So because of that belief -- which we wish everybody in the entire sporting universe shared, by the way -- he can't help but "detest any kind of BS that gets in the way of the competition."
So obviously, he sure didn't want any BS to get in the way of a World Series game. Who would?
But then there he was in the first inning Sunday, and several of his players came sprinting down the tunnel from their spot in front of the clubhouse flat screen to inform him that the Fox TV cameras were zeroing in on a big brown splotch on Rogers' pitching hand.
Uh-oh. BS alert.
"Now," La Russa said, "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.' "
Now, though, we'll never know now what The Next Step might be. (Raising the pine-tar alert level to red, maybe?) That's because, in La Russa's opinion, Rogers did in fact "fix it" -- "and we still couldn't hit him."
Did LaRussa know about Roger's secret taint on his hand before game 2?
For instance, at one point La Russa was asked a question about whether he thought Rogers' self-gloppage had crossed a line and become a "violation of the competition."
While answering that one, he just happened to mention that while he didn't spot this particular splotch on Rogers' hand,
"I did watch video of the other postseason games, so I had an idea of what it looked like."
The question: "After seeing the video, do you believe that it was dirt that Kenny had on his hand, or was it something else?"
As that question hung in the air like a
Jose Lima splitter, you could almost see La Russa's brain cells whirring. First he smiled. Then he let out an actual "Heh-heh."
Finally, he answered:
"I don't believe it was dirt. Didn't look like dirt."
And with that 10-word answer, it was safe to add him to the millions and billions and trillions of Americans who clearly are having major trouble believing Rogers' dubious account of what was going on out there Sunday.
Kenny's explanation
"I explained myself last night," Rogers said. "Anyone who wants to continue it -- it's their agenda, not mine."
And you know what? That's true, in fact. The last thing Kenny Rogers needs right now is his own how-was-I-supposed-to-notice-that-clump-of-dirt-on-my-hand agenda. So the how-
couldn't-he-notice-it agenda was all ours -- with some help from our friends in the Cardinals' clubhouse, that is.
Catcher
Gary Bennett wasn't doing any accusing of Rogers or anybody else Monday. But he confirmed exclusively to ESPN.com that he has, in the past, gotten dirty. And when that dirt has shown up on various body parts, he has pretty much always noticed it right away, he said.
"Especially on your hands," Bennett said. "You usually know. After a slide or a play at the plate, maybe you'll get some dirt on your forearm and you won't know it. But usually, in my experience, I've known when I had dirt on my hand."
Ah-ha. So that again raises the chance that maybe it
wasn't dirt on Rogers' hand. But this being America, Rogers retains the right to plead innocent -- because there are still lots and lots of potentially legal substances that could have been on his hand.
"You know, he has a terrible habit," Tigers coach Andy Van Slyke reported, "of eating Tootsie Rolls. And he happened to sit next to a heater."
Right. That was probably it. And there are undoubtedly other possibilities, too. Like, well, chocolate cake. Tigers closer
Todd Jones tossed that one out there Sunday night.
"No," Van Slyke said, in instant denial mode. "You can't bring cake on the bench. You've got to eat something with a wrapper on it."
All right. How about soup? That's about the same color as Rogers' hand.
"Nope," Van Slyke said. "No utensils allowed on the bench. But if we were playing in Japan, it might have been wasabi."
OK, so if this were the Japan tour, we might be on to something. But since this is the World Series, that's out.