It was good old fashioned hardball over the past week in spring training games between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays. First, on Saturday Elliot Johnson ran over minor league catcher Fransisco Cervelli at home plate. Cervelli broke his wrist and will be out 8-10 weeks. Then today, Heath Phillips hits Evan Longoria with a pitch in the first inning, then Shelley Duncan slides into Akinori Iwamura with his spikes up high, prompting Johnny Gomes to charge Duncan and incite a benches clearing incident. And these games don't even count?
This has become costly not only in the fact that Cervelli is out for that long period of time, but Joe Girardi and Duncan are both facing suspensions that will be served in the regular season. Imagine Girardi's first day of managing the New York Yankees actually being managed by Rob Thomson.
In all honesty, both teams are at fault for what happened today. The decision to run over a catcher in a game that means nothing was a stupid one. It's understandable to debate that Johnson is a young kid trying to make a Tampa Bay major league team and he wanted to do whatever he could to make the team. But if Johnson really has to rely on bulldozering a teenaged catcher for a run that didn't matter to make the big league club, he has other things to worry about. Maybe Cervelli shouldn't have been blocking the plate in a Spring Training game, but the whole outside of the plate was open. He wasn't lowering his shoulder preparing for the hit, which makes it look like it caught him by surprise.
Then, Girardi openly criticized the Rays, which it something that hasn't been done by the Yankees in about 12 years. Duncan was then invited into the fracas, prompting immediate thought that both teams would be arriving to the minor league complex today with boxing gloves on.
Finally, Duncan used poor judgment when sliding into second base with his cleat thigh high. Gomes took exception, charged at him and the congregation at the second bag took place.
Phillips' hitting Longoria, and being tossed for it, shouldn't come up at all in this conversation. With two runs in and two runners on, ole Heath didn't have his stuff today. The pitch got away, brushed Longoria and the umpire overreacted.
Also tossed in all of this were Yankees's third-base coach Bobby Meacham and Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long. Not sure why, other than some heated exchanging of word with the umpires. Girardi wasn't tossed, but still may face disciplinary action from the league.
This is all nonsense. Johnson was out of line, Duncan was out of line. Gomes was out of line. Suspensions to Duncan and Gomes will probably come of this and perhaps rightfully so. Girardi may face a fine, but that should be it.
Also, fall out from this should not occur when these two teams lock horns again in another three days. They meet twice more this Spring, and then 18 times in the regular season. Is there new bad blood? Yes. Does that mean there will be brawling, beaning and ejections in the next 20 meetings? Not a chance. What it means is that the Rays, who have played the Yankees tough the last few years, now have newfound reasons to play the Yankees even tougher. The Yankees, who have seemingly taken an off day every time they met the Rays the last couple of seasons, now have newfound motivation to get up for the games against the worst in the AL East. There may be a couple more hard slides, barreling of the catchers and brush back pitches. Emotions will be high, and good baseball will ensue. The Yankees need some more passion from their players at times, so this can only help them. This also means that in the next two meetings this spring, Cody Ransom will be playing third base and Joey Porter will be in left field for the Yankees. Girardi won't chance Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriquez's health on this nonsense.
Enjoy the new rivalry. It means good things for Yankee fans in the long run.
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