"It's just disheartening. It's spring training. I just don't understand. I told all my players to play hard, but when you do something like that you take your chances that you will get someone hurt."That's what new, New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi said four days ago after a play at the plate where Tampa Bay second baseman Elliot Johnson plowed into Yankees' catcher Francisco Cervelli in the 9th inning (starters no longer in the game), breaking Cervelli's wrist and sidelining him 8-10 weeks in the process. If you've never heard of Johnson or Cervelli before, there's good reason. Combined, they have zero at-bats in the bigs. Johnson just turned 24 and Cervelli just turned 22. Neither were expected to make the team's opening day rosters.
Don Zimmer immediately responded to Girardi's comments, saying they sounded un-Girardi-like.
"You block the plate. If I slide into him and break a leg, nothing is said. Instead of breaking my leg, I bowl him over and it's not the right play? Well, to me it is the right play, spring training, or no spring training. Play the game the right way. To me, our kid played it the way he thought it was right, and I think it was right," Zim said.
And Zimmer is right, especially considering what the Rays are trying to do- have their first winning season in franchise history. You don't accomplish that by letting Girardi's message of "play hard some of the time, just don't get hurt" be your organizational mantra. The Rays don't have New York's history, talent, or budget, so they're going to have to play hard to win. Johnson is trying to make a good impression on his organization by being gritty. Not dirty, gritty. There's a difference. And for that matter, Cervelli was trying to be gritty too, by blocking the plate. Obviously Johnson wasn't trying to break Cervelli's wrist, but that's what happens sometimes when a catcher blocks the plate.
Nevertheless Girardi said there wasn't any bad blood between the two AL East clubs. But it now appears he may come in a close second to former Governor Eliot Spitzer for the title of Biggest Hypocrite in New York.
This was the scene Wednesday in the second inning (mind you, less than 10 outs from the first pitch, starters still playing). Despite being warned before the game, Yankee hurler Heath Phillips (not a candidate for the rotation) drilled Rays' top prospect Evan Longoria with a pitch (the projected opening day third baseman). Phillips was ejected and both dugouts were warned again, but apparently Shelley Duncan (and Girardi, perhaps) didn't get the message, because Duncan went spikes-up into Rays' infielder Akinori Iwamura (another starter). Duncan was ejected, then tackled by Jonny Gomes who came racing in from right field and both benches emptied.Duncan hinted he was going to do something meat-headed or dirty (not gritty) right after the collision at home a few days ago.
"They showed what is acceptable to them and how they're going to play the game, so we're going to go out there to match their intensity, or even exceed it," he told reporters after Cervelli-gate.
What his quote basically says is, "we're going to exceed their intensity by playing dirty."
A gritty player doesn't need to tell everyone how hard he's going to play, because he just goes out and does it. But that's not what Duncan did because he's a non-starter, goon. He's 6'6'', 225 pounds, 28 years old, and has 74 career at-bats in the majors. If he gets hurt it doesn't matter. So he either took it upon himself to avenge a guy whose name he probably didn't know a month ago, or he was sent in to do his manager's dirty work.
The biggest problem I have here is the fact that Duncan, Girardi, or both, specifically targeted Tampa's starters- Iwamura and Longoria. It wasn't Jorge Posada who got plowed into four days ago. It was a guy who was going to be in high-A ball. That's playing dirty and trying to injure half of Tampa's starting infield.
Collisions at the plate are part of the game. They happen. Nobody scripts them out ahead of time. And in most cases, nobody involved in one does so with malicious intent. A runner wants to score, a catcher wants to tag him out. But throwing at people and going in spikes-high...those actions are just the opposite. They're premeditated, malicious, and dirty.
Thankfully, nobody got hurt during today's exchanges and no punches were thrown. But it will be interesting to see if the Yankees continue to be as petty as they've been so far when these teams hook up in the regular season, April 4 in the Bronx. It was also be interesting to see if Tampa decides to retaliate a little higher up the totem pole...i.e. against one of the Yankees' starters, not Shelley Duncan.
