Kenny Rogers - Using Pine Tar?

[Hermy]

Super. I'm gonna see if I can find a clip of what Woody Paige said about it on "First and Ten" so we can spark some real intellectual debate.

[Fool]

Or you could explain why its total shit.

Since the main argument against my position was "You don't watch the game. Let's see what John 'I.Q. 180' Kruk says about it". I thought someone with a vote for the hall of fame pretty much agreeing with me was on the mark as far as a response.

[Vinny]

Seriously, where are you getting this John Kruk crap from???

[Fool]

Its mocking statements like "everyone in baseball is taking this and laughing about it".

[Vinny]

Why are you taking this all so personally?

[Fool]

I'm not taking it personally. I'm arguing a point.

[H1Man]

Rogers tackles 'Dirt-gate' talk
Veteran disappointed that attention wasn't on pitching

Kenny Rogers is ready for his close-up, if that's what it comes down to.

He believes things happen for a reason, from the long odds he faced in getting drafted nearly a quarter century ago to the messy final year in Texas that put him on the free-agent market to land with the Tigers. If the "Dirt-gate" controversy from the World Series lingers into this year, if the television cameras fixate on his hand this season, he can take it, he asserted. He has nothing to hide.

"That's OK," he said. "Here I am. Take another shot. I've had a bulls-eye."

Rogers joined the second day of the Tigers Winter Caravan on Thursday, meeting fans and media in town for the first time since the World Series. It was also a chance for him to address the Series' greatest sideshow for the first time since the attention died down. He doesn't know whether it will pick up again come spring, but he's ready for it.

The FOX look at a smudge on Rogers' left hand in Game 2 seemed set as the lasting image of the World Series until the series of fielding errors from Tigers pitchers. The network queued it up after Cardinals manager Tony La Russa went to home-plate umpire Alfonso Marquez and pointed out something on Rogers' pitching hand after the first inning.

Marquez told Rogers to remove whatever was there, and Rogers gave up one hit in seven innings after that. He sent down the Cards, but he couldn't do anything to stop the attention. Only time has halted that.

He's not angry over what happened. It's a different emotion Rogers feels about the hubbub that followed him through the series.

"It's disappointing," he said during a morning breakfast at Comerica Park. "The worst part is that in the first inning, I wiped it off, and then for the next seven [innings] they didn't touch me. It's like, that's not a good enough story, so let's go with this. I never whine and cry when people beat me up, but it disappoints me. They're trying to figure out why I'm able to pitch well, but I know how to pitch. It wasn't about anything else.

"If you go watch how I pitch, watch where the ball's going, it isn't about what it's doing, it's where it's going, where it's located. It's disappointing that some people felt like they could just put their own spin on things. But I wasn't as good as the game before [against the A's in the American League Championship Series].

"Their inability to hit the ball, if you can't hit a 40-something guy, it's your own fault. It's not my fault."

The whole episode was a bizarre end to a 2006 season that saw a lot opponents unable to hit Rogers. His arrival in Detroit turned out to be one of the jewels of the offseason after he won 17 games. He started for the American League in the All-Star Game, then won two memorable performances in the AL Division Series and ALCS while going 23 postseason innings without allowing a run.

In the process, he disproved the notion that his career would fade at age 41. Surrounded by fellow starting pitchers more than a decade younger than him, he not only seemed to have new life, but he felt like he found a home.

"I was so lucky to be able to come here and be with the guys here," he said. "Things happen for a reason. I wouldn't have had that chance [if he hadn't signed as a free agent]. My whole career would've finished and I would've never had that chance, and I'm so appreciative that I got another chance to go out there."

Now 42, he has a whole other age in which to prove himself. Don't look for the same intensity or same velocity every time out that he showed against the Yankees in October, if only because it required so much physical energy against a team he had struggled against with his usual approach. If he's going to repeat his season, it's going to be with the same meticulous, crafty nature that he's otherwise known for.

It's the last season of the two-year contract he signed with Detroit 14 months ago, but it's not a swan song. The way he's going, he has no plans to stop after this season. He wants to keep going, and if the Tigers want him, he'd like to do it in Detroit.

"I know I want to play," he said. "I know I like it here. Without a doubt, this is the place I'd like to keep playing. But that's not up to me. I just go out there and do what I do and pitch."

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