In this age of 24/7 sports news, HDTV cameras and rabid bloggers, isn't hard to believe that an 18-year veteran pitcher would cheat during a World Series game with something as obvious as pine tar? Even to the most cynical sports fans, it just doesn’t quite add up. Not when there are plenty of other ways to cheat that aren’t as noticeable. Just ask Mark McGwire. If the umpires had any inkling that something underhanded was going on, we’d surely know about it. And if LaRussa thought Kenny Rogers was actually cheating, wouldn't he let it be known, friendship with Leland be damned? Bad blood between Rogers and the media (after his pushing of a cameraperson last year) may help to explain their intense coverage of this non-story. But it mostly seems due to their insatiable thirst for controversy, even when none exists. Maybe Rogers did cheat. Anything's possible. The sad part is that we've become so accustomed to foul play in sports that few exceptional performances are able to go unquestioned. So, what we have here is either: A) a pervasive cover-up conspiracy among the league's powers-that-be (given their don't ask/don't tell doping policy during the late '90s, not as big a stretch as one might hope), or B) an exceptional World Series performance by a talented pitcher that's been tarnished, perhaps forever, by inuendo and accusations. Either way, it's certainly not good for baseball.