Sunday, April 06, 2008

Bumped: You Make the Call

Jake Peavy meet...Kenny Rogers? Kevin Stahl and Johnny Cigliano sent us these pictures and this note:

My friend and I caught this after the final out, just about the time [Peavy] was going to shake Adrian Gonzalez's hand.

Thanks also to "nofatmike" for pointing the same thing out. But it could just be dirt. What do you think? Let us know in the comments section!

UPDATE:

Tony Jackson weighs in:

Not to shoot all of you down, but I'm thinking this whole mysterious substance on Jake Peavy's hand thing is a whole lot of nothing ... and even if it is a little bit of something, it's probably the same little bit of something that almost every pitcher in baseball is guilty of. It ISN'T the reason he is now 10-1 with a 2.21 ERA against the Dodgers for his career. Again, this team HAS to find a way to beat good pitchers, whether those pitchers have their hands slathered in pine tar or not.

UPDATE:

Joe Torre weighs in:

Torre was noncommittal.

"To me," he said, "it's all about grip. It helps keep the fingers on the ball and allows it to spin more. You see it in cold weather. I'm not ignoring it. It's not all of a sudden a revelation. It's not that I know Jake Peavy did it. Sometimes we overlook somebody's ability. I'm not saying the rule should be broken. It's just nothing new in the game.

"Hitters will come in and say, 'Something funny's going on.' Yesterday, guys were saying the ball was disappearing, but they were saying that about [Dodgers starter Hiroki] Kuroda the other night. If I start to make a big deal -- and I'm not saying somebody should do something illegal -- it's like saying to the player, 'This is the reason we got no hits.' It's like hitting a spitball -- hit the dry side. I don't want to make excuses for not winning. I didn't suspect anything yesterday. It was the first time I've seen him pitch."

UPDATE:

I mean, c'mon. Jake Peavy weighs in. I mean, seriously:

Peavy denied that he cheated.

"It's just dirt," Peavy said. "I pick up dirt. I mean, c'mon. I mean, seriously. That's funny to me, seriously."

Peavy later added, "If anybody wants to check me for anything I'm doing at any time, they're more than welcome to. I promise you that."

Joe Torre gets the last word. From Tony Jackson:

The most cryptic thing Torre did say, though, was this: "We were the visiting team yesterday. We'll be the home team on Friday, so the balls that get thrown out of the game will come over to our dugout."

11 comments:

Mike said...

Thanks for the nod.

Alex Cora said...

Dude Jake, It is called toilet paper...

StolenMonkey86 said...

That's exactly what I was thinking it was, Alex!

Marc said...

You dug up the dirt on Peavy.

It's dirt.

http://dodgersblog.mlblogs.com

StolenMonkey86 said...

I still like the retaliatory move of beaning Jim Edmonds so the Padres can make a panic move to acquire Juan Pierre.

cigarcow said...

Think about how disgusting a baseball field is. Players are constantly spitting on everything, all game long. The ball probably rolled into a big goop of tobacco spit and then Peavy touched it. ewwww. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often, balls with tobacco juice dripping off them. I'm making myself sick.

Steve Sax said...

Cigarcow: I heard Tom Verducci is hard at work writing an article on "disgusting stuff found on a baseball field." Compelling story.

Rob said...

I went through this last year with K-Rod's alleged ball doctoring, and believe me, there are all kinds of people eager to believe anybody successful has been cheating. I'm surprised Derek Zumsteg hasn't been all over this, but then it looks like his paranoid witch hunt came to an end some time in December. That's too bad; it started as an interesting idea but got all puritanical and dull.

cigarcow said...

I think Verducci is busy teaching other writers at SI how to make stuff up. Did anyone see the latest edition where they captioned a photo with talk about Ethier coming up through the Dodger system with Martin, Kemp, and Loney? Mhm. I guess I forgot about when Ethier was playing in Jacksonville. They don't bother researching West Coast teams. I demand an investigation!!

Orel said...

I wonder what Charlie Chowda has to say about this?

Steve Sax said...

Charlie Chowda thinks Peavy's got some wicked pissah shit on his hand.