Squawker Jon and I went out for Easter brunch in Westchester. We were listening to the game on the radio on the way home. The Yankees started winning when I turned off the radio while getting gas. But everything fell apart after I got home and put on the game.
Joe Girardi took out Damaso Marte, then Jose Veras walked Billy Butler, then Phil Coke blew the game. And fans across the blogosphere are outraged, suggesting that Girardi messed up, among other things, by pulling Joba Chamberlain after 88 pitches, not letting Marte face Butler, putting Coke in too intense a situation, and not pitching Mariano Rivera.
While I can see fans' points on most of this decisions, I don't think bringing Mo in to get four outs against Kansas City in an April game would have been a good move, given that he is coming off shoulder surgery. Joe probably got a little too cute overmanaging, but I'm not ready to jump off the ledge yet over it.
Besides, I blame my self for jinxing after I starting to watch the game on TV!
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In other news, I did see a clip of the Josh Beckett/Bobby Abreu confrontation. Let me get this straight - Beckett hurls a fastball inches from Abreu's head, after the batter had called time. When Bobby, understandably, gets mad, Beckett gets off the mound and walks toward him. And the only people thrown out of the game are the Angels angry about what Beckett did? Sheesh.
On a lighter note, I was listening to the new Bernie Williams album "Moving Forward" on the way to pick up Squawker Jon. Good stuff!
What do you think? Leave us a comment!
7 comments:
I love your dramatic retelling of the beckett-abreu confrontation. Abreu "understandably" got mad after the ball was "inches" from his head. It was a high inside fastball meant to send a message. It didn't hurt anyone. In fact, in your retelling, the only people who did something that they weren't supposed to do were the angels who left the dugout.
Coke came in to face the bottom of the lineup, so it didn't looked like over managing. As Sinatra sang "That's life!"
Of course there was drama between Beckett and Abreu! The umpire signals timeout, Abreu lowers his guard and Beckett still throws close to his head. It's like waving the Red Cross flag and still getting shot at. And what message did "defender of the Holy Grail and how baseball should be played" Beckett wanted to send?
Who cares, Abreu drives in the go ahead run and a lead they would never relinquish.
When Joba throws a high fastball sending a message to Youk ...that's a different story ..right? He never even hit Youk but he gets tossed ..Beckett doesn't even get a reprimand. I guess it's only headhunting when it's another team throwing at the Red Sox even tho' Red Sox pitchers have been throwing at other teams year after year espcially when Mr. Martinez was leading the way.
As far as Bernie's music ...I'll be at his show at the Nokia on April 18th after I go to the game in the afternoon. I hope some of his Yankee buddies show up at the show ..I'm sitting in the Orchestra ...
Go Yankees 2009 !!!
All I can say is...I miss Abreu. I do. We could have had him for a song. Do we have a glut of outfielders? Sure. But what a bench.
Anonymous, that arguments is "Non sequitur." Who was talking about Joba here? If you would please enlighten us what was the message that Joba was sending to Youk? Wasn't that back in '07?
What is this? Observation selection? Circumstances were very different ... Youk never asked for a timeout and if Joba was sending a message he failed miserably, twice, in a row. Beckett's pitch was CLOSER and I don't recall Joba screaming at Youk like Beckett did to Abreu.
Alvaro: One message board I saw has already begun to compare Phil Coke to my old bete noire Kyle Farnsworth. I think you've got the wrong Sinatra song there: Instead of "My Life," it's "Learning the Blues," and if it gets worse it could be "I'll Never Smile Again!"
It seems that we have sat and talked like this
once before
we looked at each other in the same way then
but I can't remember where or when.
The heck I can't.
As for Beckett... somebody needs to teach this bozo some manners. Maybe in a Red Sox-Mets interleague game, Gary Sheffield.
A bad start for baseball's season gets worse. Today, we lost two legends, one brief, one of a lifetime. Mark Fidrych. And Harry Kalas.
A bad year already. It'll take a lot of good baseball to redeem this season.
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