RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Sports and Wrestling How 'bout them Yankees- 2008 (and no other team matters!)

here, this is from the original story:

• "I'm not trying to hurt anybody, especially in a Spring Training game," Johnson said. "I hope he doesn't lose his job. But I'm trying to show these guys what I can do. I'm just trying to score the run. Looking back on it, I'd have to say I'd probably do the same thing."
  
  Johnson said that he saw Cervelli's left foot blocking home plate as he waited for the relay throw from Jason Lane to Wilson Betemit. Johnson said that he could have tried to hook around the catcher and slide, but he believed he would be out.
  
  "With the time that I had there, the instinct was to slide and be out, or hit him and see if I could pop the ball loose," Johnson said.

see i'm never wrong.

or straight

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-rays-yankees-ejections&prov=ap&type=lgns




wow Girardi thinks it's bad form to slide into a catcher blocking the plate, but condones spiking a 2nd baseman when you are already out by ten feet.


Joe Blow.

its a bush league play, but this doesn't say girardi condoned it

I have no problem with it. I'll get into this more tomorrow though. If it was anyone but the Yankees we wouldn't even be talking about this.

*cough*Red Sox*cough*

it wasnt the fact that it was the yankees that i brought this up. if i had read any manager cry about a guy blocking the plate getting ran over i woulda called em out.

I'm not knocking you for bringing it up bsams. You're hardly the only one. I meant that if it wasn't the Yankees (or Red Sox) it wouldn't have been a story. But people love to hate the Yankees and now the Red Sox since they are winners.

On Saturday's home plate collision: Bsams said that it was a good hard play and if you don't want to get barreled over then don't block the plate.

I respectfully disagree. The opposite side of that coin is if it's just a spring training game and the games don't count then why do it. Slide and if you're out you're out no big deal. Johnson of the Rays could have been injured in the play as well or he might have broken something and the Yankee guy might have been fine. I wonder if Maddon would have thought it was a good idea to do that if it was his guy that broke his arm and will be out for 2 months maybe ending his baseball career.

I have watched for 12 season under Torre the Yanks sit and get bullied around by every team in baseball (especially the Red Sox and their purpose pitches to Jeter) and NEVER retaliate. Fuck that shit. If you want to do stuff that is questionable but "part" of the game then don't be a bitch when it comes back to bite you in the ass. Gomes had no business coming out of the outfield like that yesterday. If anything let the Jap take issue with it.

It's about Goddamned time we had a manager who is not afraid to take the opposing players out if they try that shit with you.

hahaha

exactly, why block the plate? obviously if you block the plate you think it means something, and is not a meaningless game.


even in a pickup game, if someone blocked the plate on me, they were getting run over.

also my point is, dont cry if your going to retaliate. it makes you a hypocrite.

also, i take shits bigger than girardi.

do you think maddon is also a hypocrite for taking offense to this play and not the other?

who?

the other coach - i think thats his name, right?

yeah, this guy:

"What you saw today was the definition of a dirty play," Rays manager Joe Maddon said. "There's no room for that in our game. It's contemptible, it's wrong, it's borderline criminal. And I cannot believe they did that."

But if it's a meaningless game why try to score so hard. Johnson by plowing into the catcher put himself at risk just as much as the catcher was at risk. Why risk breaking your arm if it doesn't count?

i dunno, i'd have to read his remarks.


i never saw the spike incident but from the description:

"The benches cleared after New York’s Shelley Duncan slid into Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura with spikes raised after hitting a hard grounder off third baseman Evan Longoria’s glove and trying to advance to second base on the play.

Duncan, thrown out by at least 10 feet, was immediately tossed. "


it doesnt sound like there was a play to be broken up by the spikes up. now if you have a chance to break up the DP by running over the 2nd baseman it is a very fair play. but still i'd never whine about, if i feel im wronged i'll return the favor. if i wasnt wronged, id shut up and play ball.

exactly, if it's a meaningless game, why risk injury by blocking the plate?

it's not meaningless, spring training is where roster spots are won or lost.

Duncan was trying to send a message no doubt. One of their teamates has a broken arm over a fucking spring training game....I figure it was the least he could do. And whether you realize it or not bsams. what Girardi is doing is not whining. But very deliberatley he is sending a message to the Rays and every other team out there (especially the Red Sox) that the days of pussy Torre are over. If you fuck with us we will fuck back even harder. He agrees with the Tony Larussa philosophy that if you hit one of my guys I will hit 2 of yours. I don't think he is whining but he is trying to send a vocal message to other teams and to his team too that the old pussy ways are done with.

and entirely new pussy ways are ahead?

new! pussy! can't! cook!

i dont know what that means!

We'll have to agree to disagree bsams!

I think Girardi is the greatest thing since sliced bread. The Yanks desperately needed a change.

His name is Pussy form the Sopranos.....you never saw the Sopranos? Or you busting my balls again.....you.....you......you're good you.

ive never whatched the Sapranos, I hear it's good!

i liked girardi up until this point, it hink if the yanks werent your team youd see what i mean.

I know what you are saying, but I think Girardi happens to be using this to set a new standard for the team. Right or wrong. I know Jeter will be happy. Nobody gets hit more than him.

spiking the 2nd baseman would have set a good tone. crying about it, then spiking the 2nd baseman not so good.

this is what Buster Olney has to say about the whole thing.....

"Shelley Duncan spiked Akinori Iwamura, in what appeared to be a clear case of retaliation, in the week after a Yankees prospect had his wrist broken when a Rays youngster tried to run him over. It's a classic example of how you can understand why folks on all sides of the action have done what they've done. Rays manager Joe Maddon has a young team that is trying to establish itself. He must love the aggressive play, and isn't about to tamp that down. On the other hand, you can understand why the Yankees would be upset that one of their players was needlessly injured in an exhibition game, in a clear violation of spring-training etiquette. Duncan answered, and Yankees manager Joe Girardi seemed on board with the action. Plus, from what I hear, some veteran Yankees were impressed that he was willing to go to the wall for a minor league player -- and got a sense of how much he has their backs. And the Rays' players probably like how Maddon backed them, as well. You can argue against one side or the other, but there is one point that is inarguable: This isn't over. There will be other incidents throughout the summer between these two teams. "


so basically it was a win win for both teams as far as trying to send a message to the teams.

The Yankee teammate that spiked the Devil Ray gets a plus in my book.

the hypocritical Gerardi a minus.

fair enough.....you win again!

Was Duncan's grandaddy killed when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?

the navy shot at them when they tried to walk to las angeles to avoid the attack

ESPN.com: Baseball
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Hank Steinbrenner says teams should not 'forget who subsidizes a lot of them'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ESPN.com news services

The acrimony between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays took on a new edge Friday, after Major League Baseball handed down its punishment for Wednesday's melee between the two teams.



This time, Yankees general partner Hank Steinbrenner took up the charge, reaffirming the front office's support of manager Joe Girardi, backing the players and making a comment that clearly was directed at the small-market Rays.


"I don't want these teams in general to forget who subsidizes a lot of them, and it's the Yankees, the Red Sox, Dodgers, Mets," he said to The New York Post. "I would prefer if teams want to target the Yankees that they at least start giving some of that revenue sharing and luxury tax money back. From an owner's point of view, that's my point."


Steinbrenner, again exhibiting his penchant for verbal jabbing, said he has been pleased by the Yankees' team-first mentality this spring, and did not want to comment on Shelley Duncan's slide -- the one that prompted the Wednesday skirmish.


"Girardi has his players' back and I have his back and that's never going to change," Hank Steinbrenner said to The Post.


"There are going to be problems, especially if they go after our stars," Steinbrenner added. "It's not going to be tolerated. We never have done it to them. It's just not going to happen anymore."

The Yankees and Rays face each other again Saturday afternoon at Legends Field in a split-squad game. The dispute between the teams started last Saturday, when Rays infielder Elliott Johnson slammed into Yankees catching prospect Francisco Cervelli at home plate. Cervelli broke his wrist and is out for 10 weeks.


On Wednesday, Duncan went spikes-up as he slid into Akinori Iwamura at second base, which caused the benches to clear and Jonny Gomes to rush in from right field to tackle Duncan. On Friday, the commissioner's office issued fines against Girardi, third-base coach Bobby Meacham and hitting coach Kevin Long; suspended Yankees center fielder Melky Cabrera and Duncan for three games each; and suspended Gomes for two games.


Cabrera said on Saturday he most likely will be appealing his suspension.


"All I can tell you is that I will support everything he does, and that will never change," Steinbrenner said of Girardi. "Because this is the manager I wanted, and that's not anything against Joe Torre. That's the manager we wanted at that time. Times change."

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

God! I love Hank!