Fans were buried in blankets. Managers were swallowed in mittens. Players were hidden in ski caps.

But on a bone-chilling Sunday night at the World Series, nothing was seemingly covered up more than the bare left hand of Kenny Rogers.

In the first inning of the Detroit Tigers’ eventual 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, a national television audience saw a dark splotch at the base of Rogers’ pitching hand.

With a dark and sticky tint, it looked like illegal pine tar.

With Rogers’ spinning pitches, it acted like illegal pine tar.

Within moments, some Cardinals watching on the clubhouse television rushed to their manager and claimed it was definitely illegal pine tar.

But, amazing, perhaps conspiratorially, for the first time in the history of pine tar, nothing stuck.

Tony La Russa, the Cardinals’ manager who is close friends with Tigers Manager Jim Leyland, did not demand that Rogers be searched. 

The umpires, who apparently never saw the splotch, did not initiate a search.  But we were told after the game that they told him to wash his hand.  This seems fishy, why would he have to wash his hand if nothing was illegal about it?

In the Tigers’ dugout in the middle of the first inning, it appeared that teammate Brandon Inge whispered something to Rogers about the hand.

Rogers disappeared for a moment, returned to the mound later with a clean hand, and eventually threw eight shutout innings in evening the series at one game apiece.

While, incidentally, extending the most mystifying postseason performance in recent baseball history.

Before October, in nine postseason appearances, Rogers had an 0-3 record with a 9.15 earned-run average.

Since October, in three postseason starts, he has gone 3-0 with an 0.00 ERA in 23 innings.

You read that right. He has gone from possessing one of the worst records in postseason history to owning the third-longest scoreless innings streak in postseason history.

He has gone from a guy castigated for shoving a cameraman to a guy celebrating for punching the air in triumph.

Maturing? Not quite. At 41, he becomes the oldest starting pitcher to win a World Series game in history.

Cheating? Who knows? Even after the evidence was as blatant as dozens of wild Cardinals swings, it is a question that amazingly nobody wanted to broach.

“It’s not important to talk about,” La Russa said afterward.  Well I think it is important and this entire post season is tainted now.  Attached are some pictures of Rogers pitching against the Yankees.  This fact alone makes me think TLR regrets his decision.

Burns

The Big three are going to be the big three losers.  The big three I am talking about are Ford, GM and Chrysler.  Will these companies be able to fend off the out of country companies like Honda and Toyota.

Toyota says that they are right here in the states, but because the radio is put in the car here in the states doesn?t mean it was built here.  The United Auto Workers can be blamed for both helping and hurting the American car producing industry.  The Union and its leaders are costing the Chrysler group an estimated 1.5 billion dollars on the year because it refuses to negotiate health care coverage for employees because those losses are not significant enough.    The cross-town rival Ford and GM had however lost a significant sum of money, they lost 1.6 Billion and 5.4 Billion, respectively, last year and the UAW helped lower that by asking some members to make some consessions.  By comparison the Ford retirees will be paying around $2 per day for coverage of their family and less than a dollar for no family.  Current employees have also forgone a $1 / hour pay increase to help the companies financial woes.

By rejecting the healthcare cuts today for Chrysler, they are just setting up for larger cuts in other markets where the American people will have to pay more for an American made car.  Are these American made cars better?  I don?t think they are and I will probably not buy one when I graduate.  Right now my mind is probably going to go with a Nissan unless somehow a Ford Edge finds its way into my price range.  We just don?t make cars good enough for the average person to maintain and operate.  The large engine cars of the past that have driven American working men and women are no longer needed.  We can get around in a four cylinder car that get better gas mileage and costs less.  Many of Chryslers new designs are for SUV?s and trucks and in this market there is no room for these vehicles.

Ford may be able to make the switch to the smaller cars, but is running low on profits from the explorer sales boom of the nineties and the F150 boom over the last 15 years.  These vehicles are not selling as well as they were and as Ford continues to pour resources into these vehicles they will continue to lose money.  Jaguar has always appeared to be a luxury car, but has not been pushed hard enough in my opinion as a luxury car.  I picture it below a Cadillac or a BMW and I think it should be on the same level as those vehicles.  I realize that they have Lincoln, but who drives a Lincoln or Buick that is under the age of 65?

While the Health Care problems may be causing huge problems for the auto makers, there are many other problems in the American auto industry which I think need great attention in order for it to survive.  Without the UAW?s support and willingness to work with employees we could see all three companies demise by the end of 2010.

You know what really burns my sass, sitting on the toilet the day after drinking hard liquor. There is nothing worse than the next shits. It would rank number one on things I least look forward to after a night out drinking. I would take a hangover or dry heaving the next day before spending a couple of hours on the pot. And in case anyone was wondering the answer is yes to the effects of green beer on ones stool.

Why in the hell are we wasting money on space travel? I am sorry to all of you aerospace engineers that are going to work for NASA, but what is the freaking point?

Before you get all fired up, how much money is being wasted by our government in the Middle East is of much more concern, but I just think that we could save BILLIONS by backing off of our NASA spending. Back in the late nineties (wow, I just said that) almost 7 years ago, NASA lost contact with a 165 million dollar unmanned spacecraft that we sent to Mars. That seems to be like throwing $165 million down the toilet.
We as a human race are bored in space travel I think. The race of the 1960?s seemed to have everyone?s support, but now a-days people don?t really care about it. The going rate to get someone to space is around $10,000 per pound which means I don?t think I?ll be heading to the great beyond anytime soon. There are some people that I think would spend that money, but I think we have more important things to spend out money on here on Earth. If those few individuals want to fly to space, they should pay to fund the research teams to get them up up and away.

We have established that life like it is in the movies is not likely to ever happen. The fact of the matter is that our world is the perfect place for our species to inhabit. There is a reason that the other planets have not had anything evolve on them like the planet earth. It is one thing to dream, but its another to be in a coma and not realize that we don?t have the recourses to go to space effectively. Why don?t we try and dive into the oceans and maybe live in a bubble under the sea? It seems to me that would be a heck of a lot easier than trying to find out what the rocks smell like on Mars.

If our country is going to get out of this massive debt that we have collected I think something drastic has to be done. The funding for NASA and other space technologies are a small percent of our debt, but that small percent can help a lot if we make several small cutbacks. But, where do the cutbacks stop? Do we cut all government funding for school? I don?t think half of us would be at school here without government funding, but what do I know.

How much can a sports fan take? Well, it started with a sweep in the World Series when a certain Yellow eyed idiot grounded out weakly to the second baseman to end the game. This said man also left the great city of St. Louis for a small amount of money and to a place he thought would let him not bat in the 2-hole. Well guess what he was forced to bat there in Boston and when he went into one of his constant slumps, he was booed right out of Bean town. He got booed to Atlanta where again he found himself in the two hole of the lineup. The aforementioned yellow eye is none other than Edgar Rentaria, he will also be welcome in St. Louis by many of the fans as shown the following season when we cheered as he came on the field. I was at the game he came and I booed. I hate him.
Now we find ourselves with many problems as a baseball team. We have lost a potential gold glove catcher that can?t hit his weight in batting average for a clutch hitter that seemed to just get it done in Gary Bennet. Amist the trouble of injuries a more severe blow was the loss of David Eckstein, his departure hurt not only our defense, but also hurt us at the lead off spot. He is generally a 4 or 5 pitch at bat if not more. Now we are forced to fill that void with bench players and from outside of the organization. I am not sold on Jose or Tino being the end all solution to our infield problem, but I have started to come around for Aaron Miles and Ronnie Belliard, while I think that he needs to cut his hair I think that he can still play a solid defense and be a bat in the bottom of the lineup that will give a good opposite field threat. The outfield has been battered with the loss of keys such as Walker and sanders over the past years, but this year has been devastated by the loss of Jim Edmonds trying to tough it out and eventually hurting himself worse. Preston and Juan have done an excellent job in filling in, but are no Jim Edmond?s. I sure as hell hope that we change our view and put Jim on the open market because his carreer is tailing and is not worth 10 Million a year which is what his contract is set for. If he would restructure his contract it may be worth it.
My greatest problem I have with the Cards management is pitching and the way we have handled ourselves. While Izzy has blown more saves this year than any other year in his career I still feel safer while he is in the game than anyone else that we have right now that isn?t a starter. Perhaps Reyes could be a 2 inning closer. I have been saying the cubs should be doing that with Kerry Wood. I don?t think it is too far reaching to have a closer be in for 2 innings. Most of the batters in the lineup will only see him once in two innings and if they see him twice he hasn?t done his job. Why we moved Mulder back from AAA and Reyes down confuses me, but I understand that Reyes can get starts down and we have to see if Mulder is ready to go for the post season or if he is done. As far as everyone else besides Carpenter, they are all probably aces on a AAA team and a 4 or 5 on most teams in the majors. With the exception of Marquis if he pitches to the gameplan.
Well enough for now, I?ll post again soon.