Empty the Bench

After all his antics over the years—ya know, like clobbering that cameraman—it was good to see Detroit Tigers pitcher Kenny Rogers stay out of the “shame on you” news section last season. That was until, of course, the circus came to Tiger Town to report on the most famous brown smudge in the history of professional sports. Unfortunate, really, because the old man was turning in a legendary October performance that was quickly forgotten by everyone outside of Detroit. Smudge or no smudge, Rogers buried some seriously haunting demons from his playoff past.

So it’s no surprise that even with loads of national sportswriters hanging around the Tigers camp this spring that not one of them picked up on this… none of them except for Detroit’s fantastic beatwriter Danny Knobler. There’s been no controversy, no significant battles for playing time, nothing much to report from Lakeland, so you’d think these national guys would be starving for something, anything to write about, even if it was essentially a puff piece. There’s no question Rogers doesn’t have many people on his side at this point in his career.

Anyway, Knobler reports on a recent marathon autographing session held by Rogers:

Kenny Rogers pitched today. Then he did his running. Then Rogers signed autographs. Not one or two autographs. Rogers signed more than an hour’s worth of autographs. He signed for everyone who asked, and kept signing, so long that there was no one left to ask for anymore.

“It’s not like it’s that big a deal,” Rogers said. “It’s just signing an autograph.”

But it was a big deal to the kids, including the young girl who wanted Rogers to sign her hand. And the other one who asked Rogers if he could win the World Series for her this year. This was the side of Rogers that doesn’t often get mentioned. He didn’t have to stay around. He had driven his own car to Winter Haven, so it’s not like he had to wait for the game to end and the bus to leave. He didn’t know anyone was watching, so it’s not like he was trying to get attention.

He did it because it was a nice thing to do. He did it because he understands that there’ll be a time when he’s out of baseball and no one will be lining up for his autograph. “He’s a good guy, a really good guy,” Jim Leyland said. “We’re not awful guys.”

There’s no question that Rogers has made his fair share of mistakes over the years. But something tells me that if, say, Derek Jeter did something like this we’d be reading about in USA Today and watching highlights on ESPN.

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