Discipline has been issued to six members of the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays as a result of the bench-clearing incident that occurred during the top of the second inning of their Wednesday, March 12th Spring Training game at Progress Energy Park, Home of Al Lang Field, in St. Petersburg, Florida. Bob Watson, Vice President of On-Field Operations for Major League Baseball, made the announcement.Did Shelley Duncan really do anything worse than what Gomes did? I don't think so.Shelley Duncan of the Yankees has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for his violent and reckless actions, which incited the bench-clearing incident. Unless appealed, Duncan's suspension is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 31st, when the Yankees host the Toronto Blue Jays in their first game of the 2008 Championship Season.
Jonny Gomes of the Rays has been suspended for two games and fined an undisclosed amount for his violent actions, which escalated the bench-clearing incident. Unless appealed, the suspension of Gomes is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 31st, when the Rays play at Oriole Park at Camden Yards in Baltimore in their first game of the 2008 Championship Season.
Melky Cabrera of the Yankees has been suspended for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for his violent and aggressive actions during the incident. Unless appealed, Cabrera's suspension is scheduled to begin on Monday, March 31st.
If any of the three players appeals his suspension, the discipline issued to him will be held in abeyance until the process is complete.
In addition, New York manager Joe Girardi, third base coach Bobby Meacham and hitting coach Kevin Long have been fined for their roles in the incident.
As for Melky Cabrera, the Rays have claimed that Cabrera punched Evan Longoria during the brawl (way to go Melky!.... Just kidding... well, no not really), and since it appears the MLB did find evidence of that on the video I can't complain about his suspension.
Peter Abraham reports on his blog that Duncan spoke to several reporters and had this to say: “I really haven’t had much time to really analyze it. Initially, I feel it’s pretty unfair.” Pete also said that Duncan "then launched into a long discourse about his work ethic and love of baseball. He seemed almost on the verge of tears. It was a very unusual scene."
2 Comments:
Of course it's unfair to the Yankees. Bob Watson likes it that way.
Yeah, it's really amazing how obvious it is that he's just holding a grudge with the Yanks because of how Steinbrenner treated him while he was GM. Remember in 2004? He did pretty much the same exact thing to Tanyon Sturtze.
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