It's all in how you play the game

The World series traditionally becomes the focal point of the sporting world in October, as sports fans who may not have been able to tell you the difference between a lead off batter and a designated hitter in August, suddenly become the fountains of information on all things baseball.

It's one of the more deserved championships in Sports, only eight teams can qualify for post season play (it used to be only four before the wild card plan was thought up), normally the teams that compete for the Series have been contenders all season long, so for the most part there's no real sneaking in a back door and making a run for the prize here.

This year it's the Detroit Tigers with Jim Leyland at the helm, a Cinderella story of sorts, having come from laughingstock to championship stock in a few short years. The take on the St. Louis Cardinals, a long time fixture in the National League, led by the always in high esteem Tony LaRussa.

So far, the Cards have been the team in command, some timely hitting and solid pitching taking them to a 2 games to 1 lead over Motown's suddenly hit less Tigers.

Game Four faced an obstacle that even a George Steinbrenner could never control, Mother Nature, who washed out Wednesday nights match up, and threatens to wreak havoc the rest of the week as well.

A situation that will give the pundits and fans more time to think over the big controversy of this series so far. That unusual blotch on Kenny Rogers hand!

Rogers the Tiger's pitcher found himself the centre of a mini storm of his own a few nights ago, a mysterious substance spotted by the Fox cameras on his pitching hand, in a sport with legendary pitchers who may have played on the shady side of the rules, Rogers unclean hand has become one of those great stories of the game.

Was it pine tar? Or some other kind of concoction designed to give him an edge against the Card hitters in a pivotal game, a game which the Tigers won? Not much of a stink was made about the substance at the time, it disappeared as quickly as it was spotted and from that point on Rogers went on to have a masterful pitching performance to lead the Tigers to victory.

Yet a few days later, they're still wondering what it may have been and what the league should have done about it. Territory that baseball has been in before, the championship games always seem to bring out the world of the strange.

Slate has provided a handy guide to the best of the ways that a pitcher can try to get an edge by "doctoring the baseball", read up on it and you'll be the smarterst person at the water cooler the next time the World Series comes up for a review of the action from the night before.