Rangers' Rogers Shoves Cameramen in Pregame Tirade

[Walter Cronkite]

Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers pushes a cameraman before a game at Ameriquest Field

Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers shoved two cameramen Wednesday, sending one to the hospital in a videotaped tirade that included throwing a camera to the ground and threatening to break more.

Rogers, who missed his last start with a broken pinkie he sustained during an outburst earlier this month, erupted at the cameramen as they filmed him walking to the field for pregame stretching before Wednesday night's game against the Los Angeles Angels.

The 40-year-old left-hander first shoved Fox Sports Net Southwest photographer David Mammeli, telling him: "I told you to get those cameras out of my face."

Rogers then approached a second cameraman. He wrestled the camera from Larry Rodriguez of Dallas-Fort Worth television station KDFW, threw it to the ground and kicked it.

The 6-foot-1, 210-pound pitcher saw two other cameramen who were recording from the Rangers' dugout and walked toward them. He did not make contact with the men, who were backing away.

"I'll break every ... one of them," Rogers said before he was escorted to the clubhouse by catcher Rod Barajas.

The Rangers sent Rogers home about an hour later.

KDFW news director Maria Barrs said paramedics took Rodriguez to an Arlington hospital.

"He does have quite a bit of pain, in his shoulder and his arm and his leg," Barrs said. Rodriguez was treated and released.

Fox Sports Net Souhwest spokesman Ramon Alvarez said Mammeli wasn't injured.

Cameraman Larry Rodriguez is taken to the hospital after being shoved by Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers

Footage shot by Dallas-Fort Worth station KTVT shows Rogers pushing Rodriguez's camera, which goes over the photographer's head and falls to the ground. As Rodriguez puts the camera back on his shoulder, Rogers approaches again, pushing the lens away and having words with the photographer.

As players begin to intervene, Rogers pulls the camera to the ground and kicks it before walking away.

Rodriguez said that when he picked up the camera the second time, his intentions were to keep getting footage of Rogers.

"I figured since now he vented that he was all good, but the second time was just a little bit too much," he said in an interview on KDFW.

"There's no question he was upset. I don't understand why we were the ... I don't know if we were the stem of the problem or what," he said. "I don't think we did anything wrong."

Rangers general manager John Hart said late Wednesday that the team had contacted Major League Baseball, and wouldn't say whether the team would suspend Rogers.

Hart said he had talked to Rogers and "Kenny obviously realizes his actions were incorrect."

"His comment to me was 'I didn't handle this right. I'm frustrated. My integrity and toughness is being called into question,"' Hart said.

Rangers manager Buck Showalter, who did not witness the events, said the team will investigate.

"It's not something we'll take lightly," Showalter said. "When I have all the facts, I'll deal with it."

Showalter added: "One person was frustrated - frustrated at not being able to win."

Texas lost eight of nine entering Wednesday night's game, which the Rangers won 7-6.

"I think it demonstrated an appalling lack of control," Barrs said. "The team doing poorly is no excuse for assaulting a guy who's just doing his job."

Arlington police spokeswoman Christy Gilfour said the department was investigating. No charges had been filed, she said.

"What Kenny did was wrong and we won't condone it," Rangers owner Tom Hicks said. "It will be handled internally."

Rogers missed his turn Tuesday night against the Angels because of a small broken bone in his right pinkie. Rogers was hurt after he came out of a game against Washington on June 17. Video clips showed him knocking multiple coolers to the ground, then looking at his right hand.

Rogers has refused to talk to reporters all season, and on Tuesday night ordered television cameras turned off around him. He has boycotted most media since a report before spring training that he threatened to retire if he wasn't given a contract extension.

Hicks said he's aware that Rogers has a temper.

"Kenny has had a short fuse dealing with the media," said Hicks. "I've heard stories about what may or may not have happened. He has issues. It's directed at the media and I don't know why."

Source: AP

[Flying High]

Damn what the hell is wrong with Rogers? Back on the roids maybe?

[Sodomy]

My take on Rogers

Everyone has bad days. Some people are just better at controlling their emotions than others.

OK, so Kenny Rogers went postal and slapped some members of the media around. Is that any worse than the stint that Ron Artest pulled? Or how about the Ranger (I believe his name was Francisco but am not sure because he just wasn't a big name to me) pulled in Oakland last year when he hit the opposing team's fan with a chair?

Should he be cut and basically banished from baseball because of it? In my opinion, no. Don't get me wrong, I think he should be punished. Suspensions, fines, possible demotion. But what does cutting him really prove?

The last company that I worked for had a 90 day "cool off" period. That meant if you were fired or if you quit without notice, you had 90 days to plead your case, apologize for whatever it was that you did wrong, and the chances were you would be given a second chance (the only people I ever knew of that were denied that chance were those fired for theft.)

Ok, Rogers is proving to be a hothead. But in some ways i cannot blame him. The media has been on his ass even before the season started, he broke a hand because he was upset that he was doing poorly (not the first one to do that by the way), his team is in a bad slump, and we really don't know what is going on in his personal life. Sometimes things just get to be too much for a person to endure and they lash out.

I can almost guarantee that each and every one of you on this board has at least one time "lost it". Maybe you weren't as violent about it but then again, everyone deals with stress and anger in their own way.

I hope Rogers is given that second chance. He is a fine pitcher and hed seemed like a really decent person untill this last week.

But then again, if he is cut, well, he has no one to blame but himself.

[AndySMC]

When was the last time Rogers was tested for roids?
Personally I think the Rangers ought to fire Rogers and baseball should kick him out.....and they keep Pete Rose out of baseball Geez!