-- Andrew Brackman gets hazed. "Man, they got me good," Brackman told Kevin Kernan of The Post yesterday after realizing his cap, shoelaces, and baseball shorts had been cut down the middle. The pranksters: Brian Bruney, Darrell Rasner, and Latroy Hawkins. When asked about his role in the hazing, Hawkins said, "My people took care of some business."
-- Anthony Riber of Newsday thinks Johnathan Albaladejo should eat a salad.
-- Don Zimmer doesn't realize why Joe Girardi got so upset over Tampa Bay second baseman Elliot Johnson running over Francisco Cervelli at home plate on Saturday. A collision that cost Cervelli the next 8-10 weeks.
-- Girardi's fiery attitude has brought the team together, says Kevin Kernan of the Post. And A-Rod agrees,"I think for us it's always important to stick together," Alex Rodriguez said yesterday. "(On Saturday) Joe set the tone for us and that's part of being responsible and part of being our leader."
-- Shelley Duncan thinks that this hard-nosed spring training play may begin to catch on. "What it does is it opens another chapter of intensity in the spring training ballgames," Duncan said.
-- Tyler Kepner wrote Sunday about the how Mariano Rivera is a mentor to many of the younger relief pitchers on the staff. Joba Chamberlain, Ross Ohlendorf, and Edwar Ramirez to name a few.
-- Tyler followed that up with a blog post today on about who advised Mariano when he was a young pitcher, just making it to The Show. "I asked him if anyone had helped him out when he was a young Yankee," Kepner writes. "Rivera surprised me with the first name he mentioned: Steve Howe."
-- Hideki Matsui feels fine after his spring debut yesterday.
-- It appears that the final sporting event at Yankee Stadium is going to be a hockey game, yes a hockey game. There's an article in the Daily News today about the New York Rangers hosting a regular season game at The Stadium next season. I disagree with this idea completely, the last event at Yankee Stadium should be a baseball game, Peter Abraham agrees.
Although I love the confrontational manager style, I have to agree with Zimmer on this one. It's hardnosed baseball, which is the way to play it at all times, espcially when we are talking about 2 guys who probbaly wont make either of their respected rosters. I would love the yankees to drill someone on Wed. but I do agree with Zimmer. Don't do certain things if you dont expect retaliation. I'm surprised by some of Giarardi's remarks and I think in time, he will process the situation differently in his own head, although he wont let us know about it.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard-nosed, but unnecessary at the same time. You can play hard and hustle without running into a catcher. The only teams that play like this in spring training are teams that feel they have to prove themselves.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing happened in '05 with Dmitri Young, he ran over John Flaherty in a spring training game because he didn't want people to "take Detroit for granted anymore." Well, the Tigers finished 71-91 in 2005.
As for players wanting to make an impression, the manager shouldn't be making that kind of stuff an issue, it's spring, managers should be impressed if you hit .300, not hit a catcher.
And not that it matters, but I would have been impressed had the guy made a nice slide to avoid the tag, which he could have done.
wouldn't the Devil Rays be a team that is trying to prove themselves?
ReplyDeleteYes, but my point is that doing it like this(by running over catchers) generally doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteprove yourself in the regular season when the games actually matter.
ReplyDelete