On Shelley, retaliation, and the dewussification of the Yanks

By now, you all know what happened in yesterday's game between the Yankees and Devil Rays. If you've been living under a rock or haven't been able to check the sports pages, both benches emptied following a hard slide into second base by Shelley Duncan in the bottom of the first. Popular belief is that Shelley's slide was in response to an incident from last week, in which Devil Ray Elliott Johnson broke Yankee catcher Francisco Cervelli's wrist in a collision at the plate. You can read about the home plate collision here and watch video of the Shelley slide here (the second video also shows the collision at the plate).

I didn't write about the Cervelli injury at the time, but I think it was completely uncalled for. It was a clean hit, but it was also a spring training game. No benefit can come from such a collision with the catcher; the game means nothing, and the run means nothing. Johnson may well have been trying to impress his manager, but one play at the plate is not going to be the difference between making the team and riding buses at AAA (especially for Johnson...his minor league career is a joke). Spring training is a time to get into shape, and to get back into the swing of things. It is not a time to play like the 7th game of the World Series.

A big part of the problem is Devil Ray manager Joe Maddon, who is both delusional and ball-less. He's been encouraging his team, who have sucked so hard for so long that they've developed a Napoleon complex (I'm reminded of Demitri Young plowing into John Flaherty in ST a few years ago and saying that they were the Tigers and not the Kitties), to play rough in meaningless games all spring. He, as well as members of his team, condoned Carl Crawford's plastering of Astros catcher Humberto Quintero as "a good, hard play" while ignoring the fact that such a collision could easily have taken Crawford (to say nothing of Quintero), arguably the teams best player, out of action for a long amount of time.

After the Cervelli collision, Maddon locked himself in his office and refused to talk to reporters, a gutless, spineless, ball-less move. After such a ridiculous play, he should at least be a man about it. He later defended the play as good "hardball" and when asked whether he wanted to talk to Girardi about it, he made some of the stupidest comments I've ever heard:

“Honestly, I really haven’t even thought about that,” said Maddon. “I like the guy, I like Joe, I’ve always liked Joe. If he would like to have a conversation, God, I’d like to talk about politics, I’m good with global warming, I’m good with a lot of different topics on a daily basis. I like iTunes, I download some stuff off iTunes, I like different restaurants, I like red wine. I have a lot of different areas I can go conversationally.”

What a jackass. I'd love to see the two get in a fight. Girardi would stomp Maddon.

Flashing forward to yesterday's game, I think Shelley's slide was a bit on the dirty slide. It wasn't nearly as bad as many people, especially on the D-Rays, have made it out to be. It was also awesome to see. He came in higher than I would have liked, but it's about time the Yankees started defending themselves. All too often in the Torre years the Yankees would sit by while player after player got drilled. After an uncalled for shot resulting in injury, something had to be done. I can't even criticize Shelley for going in high, as I've done the same thing in many soccer games in defense of teammates. I've been accused multiple times of trying to injure, and some of those claims have been accurate. When you defend teammates, you want to make it known what you are doing.

Not surprisingly, the opinions of Maddon changed when the shoe was on the other foot. He called Shelley's slide "borderline criminal," a statement that is completely idiotic (anyone else noticing a theme with Maddon?). Why a spike to the shin is criminal but bowling over a catcher is "a good, hard baseball play" is beyond me. One ended with a broken wrist, one ended with a booboo. Which is more criminal?

Johnny Gomes, who deserves the longest suspension for charging in from the outfield and attempting (and failing badly) to tackle Duncan, made the comments that pissed me off the most, saying:

"I've never played for the Yankees; I've played against them and I watched them growing up, but I know that's not the Yankee way," Gomes said of the slide. "That's not how they play. Those guys are athletes, they're clean-shaven; you rarely see the Yankees do stuff like that."

I'm sick of all the nonsense about the Yankee way. His implication seems to be that it would be acceptable for another team to retaliate, but not the Yankees. Most teams would have been mad about the injured catcher and most would have retaliated; it's about time the Yankees joined that group. Retaliation was warranted and it was issued; that may not be the Yankee way, but it's the way the game is meant to be played. My guess is that Johnny was just mad that he looked like such a fruit when trying to tackle the monster that is Shelley Duncan:

So to sum up today's post:
1. Bowling the catcher is uncalled-for in spring training.
2. Elliott Johnson sucks and isn't making the D-Rays anyway.
3. Joe Maddon is a moron.
4. Shelley Duncan is awesome.
5. The Yankees will, with any luck, start retaliating more often.
6. Johnny Gomes completely lacks tackling ability.

*Update:
I found the below quotes from the Yahoo article I linked earlier:

“His left foot was right there blocking the plate, and my options were either hook around and slide, I thought that would probably have taken too much time and I would have been out,” Johnson said. “The time that I had there, the instinct was slide and be out or hit it him and see if I can pop the ball loose.”

Johnson does understand Girardi’s point of view.

“Hopefully he’s OK,” Johnson said. “I’m not trying to hurt anybody. But I’m trying to show these guys what I can do, and I was just trying to score the run. Looking back at it, I’d have to say I’d probably do the same thing.”

Hey Elliott...you've got a career .250/.325/.377 line in the minors. Run over as many catchers as you want, you still suck.