truebluefan

Whether it was just plain dirt or a smear on the entire World Series, baseball isn't going to have an easy time washing its hands of the Kenny Rogers situation.

Given most of a day to digest the controversy over what the Detroit Tigers pitcher had on his hand Sunday night — and why — the Tigers did their best Monday to move on, but the St. Louis Cardinals created enough sparks to keep the subject hot. All the while, the incident was being handled within the sport's unwritten code of conduct, a hazy area somewhere between the actual rules of the game and an etiquette refined over nearly a century and half.

"I detest any kind of BS that gets in the way of the competition," said Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, whose team has several balls from Sunday's game it believes Rogers might have doctored. "I do think if someone is abusing, it could be stealing signs on second, I don't care what the abuse is. ... The way we handle this is, 'Quit doing that, before this becomes a big deal or ugly or whatever.' "

But what, exactly is "it?"

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