latest bosox-yanks brouhaha

Except, baseball under Bud Selig has grown immensely. The idea that baseball is floundering is foolish.

 

What he said.

But this rivalry is so played out. Baseball probably needed it in 2004.

 

Hey, the boys behaved themselves last night, and got it down under 3:30.
But we're also without Youkilis (homer for the PawSox on rehab last night) and Chamberlain, two major flash points.

 

youlillis a 'flashpoint'? really? i don't see that. i think that right-thinking yanks fans -- and they do exist, believe it or not -- actually respect most hard-nosed bosox, with youkillis and pedroia topping the list. big papi, too, even if they don't particularly like the way he sometimes admires his homers after launching them.

the bad blood was primarily stirred by pedro martinez (seen as a head-hunter) and manny, who everyone hates, and more recently beckett, who they see as a punk. yanks fans look at him like bosox fans see joba, probably.

but youk? what did i miss to make you think that?

 

It's not so much that Youkilis pisses off other teams' fans and players, Shock, it's the fact he's an enormous red-ass. Pretty much everything pisses HIM off.

 

you know this subject WAY better than i do, mg. from this great distance, youkillis is just an intense competitor who plays hard.

 

He IS an intense competitor who plays hard. But he remains intense, and aggrieved, pretty much 24/7. He's the guy who busted on Ellsbury for being injured last year and not coming back. Given how Ellsbury's done this season, Youkilis probably wants that remark back, but that's how he is.

 

Back to the ruling on the swing or non-swing ...

Technically, that wasn't a swing, and here's why. The moment that ball hits him, it's a dead ball and he can't swing at it. He would have had to completely offered at the pitch before it hit him in order for it to be a swing. He did not do that (in my judgment, and that of Mark Wegner as well). For any umpire, ruling on a checked swing is one of the toughest (if not the toughest) calls to make.

 

If Joba were around, he'd be throwing at Youk. He did it twice 3-4 years ago in a game the Yankees led 5-0 in the eighth when there was absolutely no reason to be starting crap.
Two years ago, Youk decided he'd had enough the day Rick Porcello drilled him. He still gets hit regularly enough that he may want to take matters into his own hands again (as Big Papi did in July).
And Beckett and Lackey have both proven they have no qualms about throwing at people.
I worry about Burnett throwing at somebody tonight because he is so high on Yankee fans' shit list that he may decide the only way he'll get back in their good graces is to throw at a Red Sox player. That's led to more than one beanbrawl.

 

I'm not sure Burnett could hit any object on purpose except maybe baseball bats.

 

it's an impossible call for the HOME PLATE ump to make, which is why they usually ask for help from the third or first-base ump. and obviously, the alleged swing or non-swing happened before the batter was hit. so it's not at all uncommon for a player who tries to check his swing on a pitch that hits him to have a strike called instead of being given first. that's the rule -- swing trumps hit-by-pitch.

the replay was clear that the guy swung. that's why girardi went nuts. actually, i think what drove him most nuts was the home-plate ump's refusal to ask for help.

whatever. regardless of this play, surely you agree that umps are wrong more regularly today than in previous years or stretches of years. yes, i suppose i'm an old goat whining about how nothing is as good as it used to be, except itm not one of those folks. it's been noted frequently that this is the case