Television cameras caught a brownish substance, possibly dirt, on the palm of Kenny Rogers' left hand in the first inning, and showed it several times. By the second inning the substance was gone, and the pitcher's hand looked clean. "It was a big clump of dirt," Rogers said after the game. "I didn't know it was there. They told me about, but it was no big deal." When asked how he could have a big clump of dirt on his hand, Rogers replied, "It was dirt and rosin put together. That's what happens when you rub it up. ? I just went and wiped if off. I didn't think it was an issue. After the first inning, it was fine. I felt I was pretty comfortable after that." Before the start of the second inning, the umpires had a conference and then talked to Cardinals manager Tony La Russa on the field. Umpire supervisor Steve Palermo told a TV reporter that whatever Rogers had on his hand needed to be cleaned off. The supervisor said it was nothing suspicious, and both managers were alerted. "There was no formal request made about [Rogers] being inspected," Palermo said after the game. "There was a noticeable dirt mark on his pitching hand, and after the first inning, Alfonso Marquez, the home-plate umpire, asked him to remove the dirt so there wouldn't be any question about any controversy. And I think if you see the following innings, he pitched fine without the dirt." "Dirt is not a foreign substance. That's the playing surface. ? There was absolutely no detection that he put anything on the ball by any of the umpires. That rule regards if he deliberately put something on the ball to doctor the ball. There was an observation, and [Marquez] saw there was dirt, and he asked him to take it off." "It was observed as dirt. [The umpires] have a pretty good idea what dirt is and what a foreign substance is." ESPN looked at tapes of Rogers' other playoff starts and the substance was evident against both the Yankees and A's.