betterREDthandead

That's a terrific article. I wouldn't have guessed sunscreen - I would have thought that makes the grip worse, not better. It's almost ironic in that it implies Kenny doesn't actually use pine tar routinely, if ever until Sunday. Here's another issue. This is how the rule reads: This says nothing about what the pitcher can put on his hands, as long as none gets on the ball. So the sunscreen and shaving cream that the coach referred to in the article, if you read the article the way I do, is perfectly legal. There's nothing in there about applying stuff to your hand to help you grip the ball. As long as pine tar doesn't get on the ball, there's really nothing in the rule book that says it's illegal.

You draw the line when guys are clearly and obviously caught in the act. Like when Brian Moehler got caught with sandpaper in his glove, or when Sammy Sosa and Graig Nettles broke their bats and foreign substances spilled out (cork and Superballs, respectively). Suspension time, and progressively harsher punishments for future transgressions, which is the way it is now, and the way it should be. I also draw the line at steroids, because you can't call a guy out on the field for it. You can always ask to check the bat or glove, you can always point out the camera they've set up for sign-stealing (I actually find that kinda distasteful too though - if you're gonna steal signs, do it without the aid of electronics). But you can't test a guy for steroids right there. Plus, there's no extra skill involved in steroids. Standing on the mound with 45,000 sets of eyes on you and tens of millions more watching on TV, and rubbing the ball in grease you've got on your hands? That takes extra skill to hide, and steel cojones besides. All it takes to 'roid up is a needle and a willing accomplice.

I know it's bad timing for me to come out and say I don't mind greasing, but honestly, I don't. I wouldn't be happy about losing, if the Cardinals were found to be doctoring the ball, but I've always, always thought those little advantages to get ahead are all part of the game, and in fact, add to the color of the game. Yes, I can honestly tell you I'd have responded with the above post. "That's baseball," is what it comes down to. Gaylord Perry's in the Hall of Fame despite writing an autobiography in the middle of his career called "Me and the Spitter." Burleigh Grimes was basically allowed to stare at the ump, hock an enormous loogie on the ball, and throw it for a strike and it would all be OK because he was grandfathered in. He's a Hall of Famer too. Norm Cash won a batting title using a corked bat all season long. Jim Bunning was said to sharpen his belt buckle. I think Yogi Berra was the catcher I mentioned in the previous post, who sharpened his straps. This stuff goes on all the damn time, more than we usually think about. Hell, check out the Uni Watch column. It hypothesizes that Kenny uses a different cap than everyone else because it's easier to hide grease and tar. Note the fact that he is constantly going to his hat with his hand without actually adjusting the hat. (I always figured "nervous habit" but you never know, I guess.) In fact, I watched parts of Game 2 again on my Tivo (I my Tivo) and he's got a black smudge on the tip of his thumb, too. (Though, his changeup is what's been working so damn well for him, and he doesn't use his thumb to grip the change.) So maybe Uni Watch is right. But guess what: Jeff Weaver was making the exact same motions to his cap the way Rogers was. It was uncanny, the similarities. Ten to one Kenny was using pine tar, and ten to one the reason La Russa didn't bother making a stink is that he knew Weaver was too. And none of it bothers me. The only thing that bothers me is the writers who all of a sudden take the holier-than-thou stance about how the stain on his hand represents a stain on the game. Please. To me it takes absolutely nothing away from the wins. Here's the question: if the cold really makes it that much harder to grip the ball, and if Kenny is greasing but Weaver wasn't, wouldn't we've wondered why Weaver was wild?* The Cards pitchers, if they're clean and Kenny isn't, should appear all out of sorts by comparison. But Weaver didn't walk too many batters and pitched a pretty solid game, all things considered. If the cold is such a problem that Kenny needs to grease up, then I promise you, Weaver was doing the same thing. If we have to bring achievements down a notch because of things like greasing the ball, then damn, you pretty much have to examine every record ever set. Because it's part of the game, like it or not. I've got no pretenses of being on a high horse here. *9 W's in a row, ain't I cool? That just happened, I didn't do it on purpose at all.

Uh, sexually? That is definitely not the first thing that pops to my head when I see Pujols bat. I dunno, maybe that's his secret. Maybe a hitting coach way back in the minors told him to make love to the ball, and that's what makes him a great hitter. By the way, anyone read the Uni Watch column by Paul Lukas, on ESPN.com? At the risk of sounding like a complete shill, I read the column religiously, and today's is about the logos of the Tigers and Cardinals and the many, many little miniscule variations they've undergone. He talks about the cap D vs. jersey D and where they each show up, and has links to show the evolution of the D, as well as the "birds-on-a-bat" that the Cards wear. Very cool.

Well, the Big East isn't really much of a conference, but West Virginia would smoke a pretty solid majority of Big Ten teams. Actually, there's only four teams in those two conferences that I would see beating West Virginia: Michigan, OSU, Florida, and Auburn. And Auburn's a maybe. If LSU, Iowa, Tennessee, Penn State, Georgia, etc. beats West Virginia in a bowl game, I'd call it an upset.

I dunno....Rutgers could surprise some people. Big East coaches are saying Rutgers is the only school in the conference with a running game AND a defense. All three of them have played garbage schedules so far (although Pitt, which RU just beat, is a quality team), but in two weeks is that Louisville-West Virginia matchup, then Louisville-Rutgers after that. I would absolutely dig the idea of Rutgers crashing the BCS....there's extra at-large bids this year, so if they can beat either UL or WVU, they can make it.

If Lang sucks so bad, and Doan does not, what the hell does Phoenix get out of that trade?

WV is hardly a small school, unless you consider anything below the most elite programs "small". They're like Maryland, Iowa, Georgia Tech, etc. Nothing wrong with having them ranked so high.....IF they deserve it. WV does have a dynamite QB-RB combo, and unlike most schools they're undefeated, so I have no problem with a top-five ranking for them. But are they better than Michigan or OSU? No. We'll find out what they're made of when they play Louisville and Rutgers.

Wow, mention Doan and everyone gets all googly-eyed. Until someone actually says there's some real foundation to a Doan-to-Detroit deal, I don't see the point in getting all excited. Right now the dots don't even come close to connecting without a lot of imagination.

Aren't Michigan State fans used to not worrying about the polls? Zing!

Yeah, I don't think it's fair to say Ohio State's played 3 ranked teams and Michigan only one. Two of OSU's ranked opponents just didn't happen to be ranked when they played Michigan. Same team, it's not like they got worse in between playing OSU and Michigan. So really, it comes down to the difference between Notre Dame and Texas, and I think you'd be hard-pressed to say which is better right now. As for the margins of victory, that has everything to do with the fact that OSU has a primarily passing attack and Michigan is a grind-it-out power running game. Michigan is #1 in the country for time-of-possession at 34:09, OSU is 23rd at 31:21. Defensively, I don't think anyone would say there's an argument as to who's better. At 269 rushing yards against all season long, there are teams who average more than that per game. So "dominant" is pretty subjective. Michigan hasn't run up big numbers on the scoreboard like OSU, but Michigan suffocates teams with old-fashioned Big Ten football.

The computers don't take the polls into account. They're separate. At this point I'd say that OSU is only #1 and Michigan is only #2 because they don't allow #1 and #1A. OSU gets the #1 spot by virtue of being there first.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?! Blaha is right up there with Redmond, Kaline, Kell, etc. as far as TV announcers go.

Todd Jones came out said that while he was with Colorado, he was using pine tar every single pitch and supposedly, while they were interviewing Cardinal players about what they thought about Rogers, somebody shouted out "what pitcher doesn't use it?"

So here's the real question then: what was that stuff on Kenny's hand? Innocent dirt, or was he pulling a few tricks out of Gaylord Perry's book? Me, I think he was greasing that ball like a sonuvabitch. Which in my book is all good. In baseball, in my opinion, certain kinds of cheating are totally kosher if you can get away with it. Spitting on, scuffing, cutting, greasing, sanding, or otherwise doctoring the ball fall into this category. As does corking the bat, mainly because I think that secret-agent s**t the Cleveland Indians once pulled to retrieve corked bats from the umpire's locker room and replace them with regular ones was hilarious. It's all part of the colorful history of the game. Like the catcher that would file the buckles on his shin pads reeeeeeeal sharp, then "drop" the ball and run it over the edges as he picked it up. Stealing signs, corked bats, pine tar, greased balls.....it's not cheating, it's good old-fashioned chicanery :noevil: Didn't matter much, anyway. He only had it on in the first inning, and no Cardinal crossed the plate in the next 7 innings either. Might have gotten into their head a bit, though. What's a Series without a couple side-stories?

Lions = Joke. Sooner or later I would love for them to stop talking like they're really good and just haven't shown it yet. Roy Williams in particular, but Kitna's talking that way too, as is Fire Millen (Matt is no longer his first name). Course it doesn't help that Rogers and Cody are both out. Feh.

Yup, those are the pinstripes alright. Pretty ridiculous looking. I agree with everyone....the spartan logo is much better than the S on the helmets. But no, not the older Trojan-looking one. The one they have now is pretty sharp. I think State's best look was a little while ago, when they had three stripes on the pants in a thin-thick-thin pattern and MICHIGAN STATE across the front, with the spartan helmet and matching stripes on the helmet (vice the no-stripe helmet they have now). I think that's what they had in the late '90s.

I hope you don't mean those ones they had with the awful pinstripes on the sleeves. That was one of the silliest things I've ever seen. My grandmother took one look at those and said they looked like some kind of dress that was fashionable in about the 1910's. Which she hated.

What? I totally don't agree with the bottom three there. And Clemson looks good whenever they're not wearing any purple or all orange. Cal's are not so good, but they're not that bad. West Virginia has one of my least favorites. Miami's are pretty ugly. Oregon State, Virginia Tech (especially when they wear that stupid orange sleeve), and Toledo also make my list.

Man, that was ugly. But I'm not worried. Coupla reasons: A, we lost Game 1 of the ALDS too; 2, we hit the ball pretty well all night, just at guys instead of around them; and D, Verlander pitched exactly like that against the A's and Yanks too. We'll come right back at 'em tomorrow night.

I just hope those modifications don't destroy the ability to expand. It was built purposely to be able to go out to 150,000 capacity. I'd hate for some school somewhere to decide to make theirs bigger.

Heyyyyyy.....good point. I forgot about that. So it's actually 667 hours now instead of 666.

Interesting tidbit I learned: barring something weird, the game against Ball State will be the 200th in a row of 100,000+ attendance. And yeah....that comment definitely goes in the Thank You Captain Obvious category honestly, I don't know if Manningham would have made a difference in the first half when Michigan couldn't go anywhere.....the Iowa line was playing out of their minds and stuffing both the run and the pass. But Mike Hart is a damn beast. Now we can exhale, just a little bit.

20-6. 668 1/2 hours left Bonus: Florida State lost. That's never a bad thing.

Here's the lineup for tonight: Curtis Granderson, cf Craig Monroe, lf Placido Polanco, 2b Magglio Ordonez, rf Carlos Guillen, 1b Pudge Rodriguez, c Sean Casey, DH Brandon Inge, 3b Ramon Santiago, ss Interesting. No Thames. Actually I can see why: Reyes is a righty, Santiago can switch hit. No way Casey's injury is what's preventing him from playing the field, I can't see first base being too stressful on the calf. LaRussa is well known for playing matchup with his bullpen, so having Thames on the bench would give him a righty pinch hitting option to counter a lefty from the 'pen. Either that or Leyland is just going in with half his lineup tied behind his back to make it fair