"A big clump of dirt"

Lucky, lucky Fox. The network, which has always quietly considered its postseason baseball coverage a momentum-stalling albatross around the neck of its fall-season launch, got stuck with a match-up that doesn’t exactly lure in the casual fans for boffo ratings, Tommy Lasorda’s antic promotions notwithstanding. Detroit/St. Louis, two sturdy midmarket teams from what the coasts call Flyover Country with few superstars (Pujols and Pudge, and then debate what you mean by superstar).

Good teams, to be sure, but Fox obviously would be hoping for Yankees-Anybody or, failing that, Mets-A’s – get the whole country involved. Saturday’s audience was less that 12 million, down significantly from last year’s Game One.

Well, now we have a compelling narrative affixed to the Series: the controversy surrounding the wad of brown gunk on Detroit pitcher Kenny Rogers’ hand.

No wonder Rogers hates sports cameramen.

There are differing accounts and conspiracy theories about what it was: Rogers insists it was “a big clump of dirt� that he didn’t even notice was there, though as ESPN’s John Kruk later pointed out, how do you not notice something like that, particularly a pitcher, whose pitching hand is a highly calibrated instrument? And if it was just some dirt, why didn’t it completely rinse away when Rogers washed his hands? (Rogers said no one told him to; his own manager disputes that.) According to reports, Fox says it has images from other games showing shmegma on Roger’s pitching hand. And, of course, Rogers was equally dominating after he washed his hands.

So which is this: The heartening, inspirational turnaround for a 41-year-old pitcher whose previous postseason work was journeymanlike at best, or sinister forces conspiring to create one of the most astonishing October performances in history? So Joe Buck and Tim McCarver have all the conversational fodder they need for the next few games, while not-so-secretly praying that neither team sweeps while in St. Louis: Getting to Game Six in Detroit with Rogers back on the mound will ensure a huge audience.