From the Boston Herald:
Manny Ramirez sided with Kyle Farnsworth, saying the New York Yankees relief pitcher did not deserve to be suspended by Major League Baseball for three games and fined an undisclosed amount for throwing behind him in the seventh inning of Thursday’s game at Yankee Stadium.
I find it funny that sports writers, ESPN "analysts," and even some Yankees fans pretend to be outraged by the this, yet the player whose "life was in danger" doesn't seem care at all. Yes, Farnsworth threw a pitch that might have come too close, but the night before A-Rod got hit by a pitch on the upper shoulder, and nobody seemed to care.Ramirez said Farnsworth was simply honoring an ages-old baseball tradition of retaliation after David Aardsma hit Alex Rodriguez with a pitch the previous game, and thus should not have been suspended.
“He doesn’t deserve that,” Ramirez said. “He was trying to protect his player. You know, we hit A-Rod the game before. When you’ve got a guy like that on your team, you’re going to protect him. . . . That’s the way the game is played. You hit one of their guys and they’re going to hit one of yours.”
The pitch to A-Rod from Aardsma was a high fastball that like I said in another post, would have hit Rodriguez in the face had he not turned and jumped. That pitch was at least as dangerous as the pitch Farnsworth threw. Oh, and did I mention that pitch actually hit somebody?
I think the reason the Red Sox didn't retaliate, and why Manny doesn't seem to care, is because this really isn't a big deal. People need to stop overreacting to everything.
5 Comments:
You're 100% correct Greg. This is baseball, and people should know this by now. You throw at my guy, we're gonna throw at your guy.
What I find funny is how people like Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Pedro Martinez, etc. would always throw at people, and they're looked at with the utmost respect from everyone, yet when a player today does what they did they're looked at as being reckless.
Yea I agree with the both of you. I never understood why people get so nutz about this stuff - this has been part of the game for 100 years.
Speaking of over-reacting. This excerpt from Nomaas.org is a much better way of articulating what I was trying to say the other day about the Hawkins # situation.
Embarrassing. That's the only word we can think of to describe the behavior demonstrated by Yankee fans towards Latroy Hawkins for having the audacity to wear Paul O'Neill's number.
Let's get something clear right now on one point: O'Neill doesn't deserve to have his number retired. Period. He was a good player on some great teams, but the idea that his name belongs with Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Mickey Mantle is ridiculous.
The real issue isn't about retiring a number though. Several players had their number retired after others had worn them. This is about something much more shallow.
This is about a section of the fan base that has decided they're the Keepers Of The Dynasty.
These are the folks that wanted Bernie back in CF when it was obvious he couldn't play there anymore. They cheered Tino Martinez upon his return, and embarrassed themselves by demanding curtain call after curtain call if he so much as took a ground ball successfully. Their most recent temper tantrum prior to the Hawkins was delivered when their beloved St. Joe (Torre) left town because he was "insulted" by being offered millions of dollars to manage the New York Yankees. If you don't think St. Joe and these fans have a lot in common, consider how "insulted" they've felt the last few years by Alex Rodriguez's output.
They're spoiled, they're arrogant, and the sense of entitlement to a legacy that's long over has become pathetic.
Here's a helpful reminder from your friends at NoMaas:
It's over, guys. The dynasty from the late 90's isn't coming back. Time for a new one. Go watch your Yankees Fall Classics DVD set a few times, get it out of your system, and welcome to 2008. This might be shocking for you to contemplate, but who knows - maybe we'll even have someone on the team over the next few years that gives us a good reason to retire #21.
First of all I rarely agree with anything NoMaas says. I may get a chuckle out of some of their photoshopped pics, but that’s about it. I also find them to be irrational Joe Torre haters, and they prove that again by bashing Torre is this article for no apparent reason.
Second, there are many names in Monument Park that aren’t on the level of Gehrig, Ruth or Mantle, and they’re also not all HOF’ers so that point of theirs is irrelevant.
Reggie Jackson as a Yankee - .281 BA, 144 HR, 461 RBI should his number be retired?
Here’s O’Neill’s Yankee numbers - .303, 185 HR, 858 RBI and four rings, and he played good defense which is something Mr. Jackson never knew how to do.
What about Donnie Baseball, I’m sure you won’t get many arguments from people who don’t think his number should be retired. But let’s look at his numbers: .307, 222 HR, 1059 RBI. Not much different than O’Neill’s, but he doesn’t have four rings. Don’t misunderstand me, I do think Mattingly deserves his number retired, but I feel the same way about O’Neill.
This also has nothing to do with Bernie Williams playing center (which I was against in ’05 and ‘06), or people trying to be “Keepers of the Dynasty.” Whatever the hell that means.
And it has nothing to do with giving Tino curtain calls when he carried this team through the first couple months of the 2005 season. I can’t even believe they would complain about something so insignificant. And nobody should feel embarrassed by that.
This has to do with fans who believe that Paul O’Neill was the heart and soul of this team for 9 seasons. He was a leader on and off the field, and many of his teammates feel that he may have been the most important member of those teams behind Mariano.
Cause Giambi was such a great upgrade over Tino... He became an overpriced DH by year two of his contract, who has to be played in the field to justify his contract. When NoMass gets their heads out of their asses and gives a credible explanation of why a team had to carry three 1st basemen at all times, after paying 117 million for one, I'll take their opinions seriously.
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