Tigers Give the Ball to Much Tamer Rogers

As a media throng closed in on Ivan Rodriguez on Wednesday night, the Detroit catcher, exhausted after an American League Championship Series Game 2 victory over Oakland, plopped down in his chair to conduct his post-game interviews.

“Excuse me, excuse me,” interrupted a teammate thrusting a large cup of icy Gatorade through the notepads and tape recorders to Rodriguez, who grabbed it as he would a life preserver.

Owner of the helping hand? Kenny Rogers.

About 10 minutes later, a reporter found himself trapped between two leather recliners, a coffee table and two clusters of reporters interviewing players in the Tigers clubhouse.

A player sitting in one of the chairs, seeing the confusion, and then mild panic, on the reporter’s face, said, “Here, let me get that for you.” He then moved the hefty chair aside to provide an easy escape route.

The Good Samaritan? Kenny Rogers.

Yes, the same Kenny Rogers whose violent, unprovoked attack on a television cameraman last season earned him a 20-game suspension, a $50,000 fine and orders to attend anger-management counseling.

To many, it seems Rogers, the 41-year-old left-hander who signed a two-year, $16-million deal with Detroit last winter, has undergone a transformation as dramatic as that of his new team, which lost 119 games in 2003 but begins today’s game against the Athletics in Comerica Park with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven ALCS.

Rogers, a Texas Ranger last year, went an entire season in Detroit without lashing out at reporters. He has been approachable and cooperative with the media. The only hint of a public incident came in the last week of the regular season, when a Tigers fan, upset Rogers didn’t give him an autograph, yelled an obscenity at the pitcher.

But witnesses said the fan, and not Rogers, was the aggressor, and no charges were filed.

Has Rogers, who will oppose A’s right-hander Rich Harden in Game 3 today, turned over a new leaf? Or did he just need a new branch to hang from?

“I don’t think I’ve changed anything that I’ve ever done,” Rogers said Thursday. “I’m the same player, person, everything. But I’m with a group of people here and an organization that I enjoy tremendously.”

Rogers went on to cite Manager Jim Leyland, General Manager Dave Dombrowski and team owner Mike Illitch, saying, “When you combine a great group of players that go out and play the game the right way and are led by Jim Leyland here, you find you can do some impressive things.”

Rogers went 17-8 with a 3.84 earned-run average in 33 starts, but his most impressive moment as a Tiger came last Friday, when he blanked the New York Yankees for 7 2/3 innings, giving up five hits and striking out eight, in Detroit’s 6-0 victory in Game 3 of the division series.

Rogers was so keyed up he spent the night stalking around the mound, cursing to himself, pounding the ball in his glove between pitches, snapping at the throw from the catcher.

It was during his 2 1/2 seasons in New York, 1996 and ’97 with the Yankees and part of 1999 with the Mets, that Rogers was deemed by the local media as a pitcher who couldn’t win the big game.

Rogers also had a 5-7 record and 6.45 ERA against the Yankees, and the Yankees had an All-Star lineup some touted as the best in baseball history, giving Rogers boatloads of incentive.

“I wanted that game as much as any one I’ve ever wanted in my life,” he said.

Knowing the caliber of the opponent, “I knew that if I was lax in anything, effort, concentration, whatever it was, that I would pay for it dearly,” Rogers said. “I used every ounce of my being out there ... I did not want to give them an inch.”

The question is, can Rogers maintain that same intensity against the A’s today? Should he even try?

“I’m not going to approach Oakland the same way I approached New York,” Rogers said. “It’ll be different in that respect, but they’re a great club that beat a tremendous Minnesota Twins team, and I know it doesn’t get any easier as you go further into the playoffs.... They’re different hitters. They’re just as good in a lot of ways, but I don’t know how much I have to duplicate from the last start to this one. I’m just going to see what I have to work with and try to make the best of it.”

That may be challenging in conditions more suited for Red Wings-Sharks, not Tigers-A’s. Conditions are expected to be so harsh -- the forecast calls for a low of 38 degrees, with a 20% chance of rain or possibly snow -- that Major League Baseball moved the game from 8 p.m. EDT to 4:30 p.m. EDT to “provide the best window for the game to be played in its entirety,” a spokesman said.

It will probably be played without the top set-up men from both teams. Flame-throwing Tigers right-hander Joel Zumaya has tightness in his forearm and is doubtful for Game 3. But an MRI exam revealed no structural damage, and Leyland hopes Zumaya will be available in Game 4.

Oakland right-hander Justin Duchscherer, suffering from spasms in neck, remained in Oakland for an MRI test Thursday and is listed as day to day.

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com