Pine tarred

"This guy's been a bum in the post-season his entire career," Mike Francessa reminds us. Suddenly he's pitched 23 scoreless innings against the Yankees, the A's, and, last night, the Cardinals. Hmmm.

If I were the Cards, I'd be demanding he doesn't pitch again in this Serious, but it's doubtful MLB wants to make a big deal out of something on the basis of video tape evidence that could mar what may shape up to be a rare exciting "October Classic."

Personally, I love the frisson of a little suspected October ball doctoring. And truth is, the nose to toes curve he was hurling against the Yankees was probably not the result of pine tar.

UPDATE: I've been told by someone who "pitched in High School" that indeed a little pine tar expertly applied would most certainly make the break in his curve even break-ier.

“You like to give credit, because the guy’s been a good pitcher his whole career,” Larry Bowa, the Yankees’ third-base coach, said in a telephone interview. “But he’s dominating now, not just pitching good games, but dominating games. It was obvious last night on TV — that was pine tar. It was shiny. Pine tar is a shiny substance.”

Bowa said none of the Yankees raised suspicions about Rogers cheating in the division series, but he said players were incredulous at the way his pitches moved.

“Some guys said, ‘I’ve never seen that before,’ ” Bowa said. “But nobody pressed the issue when

we played him. They just said he had great movement on his pitches and kept the ball down.”