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Baseball Today: Tuesday, June 17

AP Photo

WHEN YOU'RE RIGHT, YOU'RE RIGHT: It's Hank Steinbrenner, so everybody laughs. His pitcher (above) gets hurt running the bases -- (much) more on that later in our show -- and Little Stein goes off on how ridiculous it is for one league to play by one set of rules and the other league to play by another set. (New York Daily News) And he demands the National League join "the 21st century."

Ha, ha. 'Ol Hank, always good for a laugh. All because his pitcher can't travel from third base to home plate without incapacitating himself.

And then it hits a little closer to home, when Bartolo Colon makes a cartoonish spectacle of himself flailing wildly at various Cole Hamels deliveries and has to come out of the game because he hurts his back on one of his corkscrew swings. (Boston Herald)

Forget the sideshows -- Hank Steinbrenner, the ridiculous way Colon was injured -- and focus on this: Nine times a season (the nine games A.L. teams have to play on the road during the interleague period), you're asking a subset of professional athletes, in this case American League pitchers, to utilize a set of skills they've let atrophy over the years. Most times they can handle it, at varying degrees of competency. And sometimes, as Chien-Ming Wang and Bartolo Colon can attest, they can't . . . at the cost of their livelihood and their team's on-field chances.

And why? Because one league plays by one set of rules, the other by another.

I don't want this to be interpreted as a big-market whine about losing a pitcher. I understand that pitchers, even if they don't have to do it very often, should be able to swing a bat or run the bases without suffering debilitating injuries. And I understand that position players get hurt doing the very same things, even though they work on those tasks daily.

Fact is, though, that neither Wang nor Colon would be injured today if they hadn't been playing in a National League park. That, in the end, winds back to what is -- and always has been -- my point: One league plays by one set of rules, the other by another. People ask me why I hate interleague play. That's why. You build your team to play the game a certain way and then, for the nine games a year you have to play on the road during the interleague period, it all goes out the window. It's utterly absurd. Do the Celtics lose players on four fouls when they play in the Western Conference? Do the Patriots have to play with 10 men on offense when they face an NFC team? Sounds ridiculous, right? Well, how is that any different than what baseball actually does?

Most times it's just annoying. And sometimes, like in the last two days if you're a Red Sox or a Yankee, it's infuriating.

I don't often hear Peter Abraham of the LoHud Yankees Blog say he agrees with Hank Steinbrenner, but he did today.

Me too, Pete.

SIDESHOW: Colon's injury didn't have much of an affect on the Red Sox game last night, except that it forced them to use Mike Timlin when the outcome was still in question . . . and that, sad to say, isn't a good thing these days. Timlin allowed four runs in two-thirds of an inning and Steven Krasner has the gruesome details of the veteran reliever's 2008 season in the aftermath of last night's 8-2 defeat: 40 baserunners (29 hits, 11 walks) in 21 2/3 innings, with a 7.06 ERA.

AP Photo

AS ONE DOOR CLOSES, ANOTHER OPENS: The news of Colon's injury was tempered -- at least a little -- by Daisuke Matsuzaka's more-than-encouraging rehab start for the PawSox (above). Tom Robinson, writing for the Providence Journal and projo.com, said not only did Dice-K dominate the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs -- not allowing a hit until he appeared to tire in the fifth -- but reported that Matsuzaka had no problems with his shoulder. There was already talk Matsuzaka would start Saturday in Boston against the Cardinals; if Colon's on the shelf, that would seem to be a certainty.

It all speaks to the Sox' pitching depth, something Peter Gammons discussed on ESPN Radio as transcribed by Joe Haggerty on his Hacks With Haggs blog.

AND YET ANOTHER CLOSES: They'll need that depth. Krasner says the news on Curt Schilling isn't good and wonders if the thin chance that Schilling would actually pitch this year has gotten "even thinner."

ALMOST IN THE SWING: A pain-free David Ortiz had the hard cast removed from his wrist and, Krasner reports, will begin some range-of-motion exercises to help in his rehabilitation. The Phillies' Pat Burrell, who had a similar injury in 2004, is glad Ortiz didn't have surgery; he decided against surgery after he got hurt and was back in the lineup in five weeks. (Boston Herald)

MR. REINCARNATION: When he was managing the Red Sox, Jimy Williams used to say that Nomar Garciaparra was such a throwback that "it's like he's been here before." Now he's a Phillies coach and he's saying the same things about Chase Utley.

PHILLY PHAVORITE: J.D. Drew -- who refused to sign with the Phillies after they made him their No. 1 draft choice in 1997 -- has always been held in a special ring of hell by Philadelphia fans. They gave him their normal venomous greeting last night but he had the last laugh when he homered.

HE'S BACK! Manny Ramirez returned to left field.

THE VERDICT: Out until September . . . at least. That's what both the New York Daily News and the New York Post are reporting about Chien-Ming Wang, who suffered a partially torn tendon and a sprain of the Lisfranc ligament in his right foot. So, naturally, the lonely eyes of Yankee Universe turn to C.C. Sabathia, but the New York Post's Joel Sherman tells them to forget it, that these Yanks aren't about to back up the minor-league prospect truck for a free agent-to-be. As of now there appear to be few external options, as Brian Cashman says there is no trade market at the moment. (New York Post) But Abraham -- the voice of reason, as always -- says there doesn't need to be, since the Yankees will only need a fifth starter four times between now and July 24. That, he says, gives Cashman some time to explore options.

BUT THE BIG NEWS IS . . . I can guarantee you Chien-Ming Wang and Hank Steinbrenner and C.C. Sabathia and God knows what else will not be Topic One on New York sports talk radio today.

And why?

Because the Mets (finally) fired Willie Randolph.

At 3 a.m. Eastern time.

After they'd won a game, 9-6 against the Angels in Anaheim. (New York Daily News)

Can you make this stuff up?

The Daily News has the down-and-dirty report of the firing -- pitching coach Rick Peterson and first base coach Tom Nieto were also let go -- as does the Post, which called it "a bizarrely timed housecleaning." Mets GM Omar Minaya isn't scheduled to meet the press until 5 p.m. EDT today, so speculation and opinion will rule the day until then. And it's already started:

-- On his Matthew Cerrone's Mets Blog, Cerrone says he's "embarrassed this morning, and I feel a little dirty . . . [The] Mets took so long to make this decision that it made them look foolish, classless and disorganized."

-- The blog It Is About The Money, Stupid reports reaction from various folks, none of whom particularly praise the Mets. (The Daily News' Bill Madden, on a radio appearance, calls it the most "undignified, atrocious" firing he's seen in 30 years of covering New York sports, and that includes all of George Steinbrenner's dismissals.)

-- The blog Can't Stop The Bleeding says that "for all the credibility the Mets purchased with their acquisitions of Carlos Beltran, Pedro Martinez and Johan Santana, there isn’t enough money in Flushing to erase the sort of ill will their handling of this episode will generate."

-- The blog Sportsthodoxy says Omar Minaya "has used his last bullet. He's out of cover, and the next body to hit the floor will be his."

-- The blog Sliding Into Home sums it up in succinct, NSFW fashion.

And so forth and so on, etc., etc.

Shysterball's Craig Calcaterra has the best take on it all. The Mets, he says, turned Randolph -- who he thinks deserved dismissal -- into a sympathetic figure by deliberately timing his firing until after the print media's final deadline had passed, meaning it would miss today's newspaper news cycle. But it reality it means "the bloggers, while not nearly as widely read and heard as the traditional outlets, are going to be twice as shrill as they try to fill the void; and . . . the print and radio people" -- who won't be far behind, since they all have online outlets -- "are going to level about five times as much artillery at the Mets due to the shoddy way in which this was all handled."

In fact, it's already started. Mike Vaccaro of the New York Post posted an online column in the last 15 minutes in which he absolutely eviscerates the Mets. I wanted to cull through it for the most inflammatory comments, but there are so many of them I don't know where to begin. ("Disgraceful. Utterly, completely, disgraceful" . . . "miserable cast of miscreants" . . . "sinister men, cowards" . . . see what I mean?)

Just brilliant, guys.

ONE LAST NOTE: The Mariners fired GM Bill Bavasi (Seattle Post-Intelligencer), but before you read the story after clicking this link, check the picture. All I could think was: Kevin Youkilis in 20 years.

-- ART MARTONE

Posted by Art Martone  at 9:00 AM | Permalink

Comments

G | June 17, 2008 11:24 AM link