There was an unusual, and most welcome sight during last night’s Yankee-Boston game. When reliever LaTroy Hawkins trotted out from the bullpen, he was wearing a jersey with 22 on the back.
Now keen observers may have noted that Hawkins had bagun the year wearing the number 21. Hawkins claimed it was to honor Roberto Clemente, who died just days after the reliever was born. He had previously worn 32 for most of his career, but the Yankees have retired that number in honor of Elston Howard. Therefore, Hawkins grabbed the number 21, which had originally been given to Morgan Ensberg during Spring Training. Ensberg had changed numbers quietly before the beginning of the regular season. Perhaps Hawkins should have taken note of this move.
Among most Yankee fans, 21 is Paul O’Neill’s number, and the popular consensus appears to be that it should remain so. Fans were extremely displeased to see Hawkins wearing the number of ”the Warrior”, and began chanting for O’Neill when Hawkins pitched poorly early in the season.
Micheal Kay explained the change from 21 to 22 during the Yankee broadcast yesterday, and a printed account can be found here. Apparently team leaders Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera approached Hawkins, and explained that prehaps the number was not worth getting on the bad-side of Yankee fans, especially with no track record on which to fall back. hawkins apparently agreed with their reasoning
“”I figure if it’s important enough for Jeter and Mariano and some other veterans to ask me about it, it’s not worth it to keep wearing the number,” Hawkins said. ” Lo and behold, Hawkins switched to 22 and he pitched two scoreless innings, struck out 2, and dropped his ERA 2 points.
This development is doubly good for me, as my authentic, offical, #21 jersey is now a Paulie o jersey again!
For any future Yankee players, just remember, #21 belongs to:
April 17, 2008 at 2:31 pm |
I didn’t understand this at all. Why boo the player? It’s not the player’s fault, it’s management’s fault for not retiring the number. In any event, if the Yanks start retiring numbers for player’s of O’Neil’s caliber, by the year 2050 they will have to start handing out 70’s, 80’s and 90’s like a spring training game. Get over it people, Paulie was not that good. They’ve retired 16 numbers already, and Jeter’s 2 is gonna bring that to 17 and Torre’s 6 might bring it to 18.
April 17, 2008 at 3:17 pm |
1) They booed because he was pitching like crap. They chanted Paul O’Neill because it was 21.
2) It is management’s fault, but you can’t go to the corporate office and complain, so you use your voice on the field.
3) Honoring Roberto Clemente is one thing if you are Puerto Rican. If you are from Indiana and claim you want his number b/c he died around when you were born, thats not a good reason.
4) Watch the video that I put on the bottom of the post. That doesn’t happen to your average run-of-the-mill player. The entire 56,000 assembled chanting a player’s name for an entire inning in the world series, in NY, after 9/11.
Greatness in all of baseball gets you the HOF. Greatness in the minds of Yankee fans get your number retired by the team. If fans can’t stand the idea of another guy wearing the number, it should be retired. Obviously, fans think 21 should be retired.
April 17, 2008 at 11:09 pm |
Instead of worrying about when 21 will be retired, Yankee fans should be hoping for Mussina to retire. Manny looks like he’s taking batting practice against this guy right now.
Do you want them to retire 21?
April 18, 2008 at 8:05 am |
I would be ok with retiring it, or at the very least do what the Yankees did with Jeter, save the number for someone who is can’t-miss and give it to them. Joba would have been good.
I really wish the Yankees would have Kyle Farnsworth rear back and throw as hard as he can at some fragile point on Manny. Not because he is raking against us, which he is, but because that pompus ass poses and preens after HR like noone ever has. He slacks on singles he could make into doubles, under plays ball in the field, and has the outward appearance of a homeless person. He points to the sky on a single to left with noone on in the second inning. Yeah the guy is an amazing hitter, but I’d take a lesser hitter who plays hard and doesn’t get a bullshit “Manny being Manny” pass for acting like and ass and looking like a bum. farnsworth being suspended 15 games is fine by me for a nice long convalesence on the DL for ramirez.
April 18, 2008 at 11:49 am |
Farnsworth should have been thrown out of the game last night and then suspended for five games. He is such a fucking punk I can’t stand him. As an objective viewer, let me tell you that one of the reasons you have not been winning championships this decade despite all of the talent and $ and 1,000 runs scored per year is that the Yanks started siging punks like this guy. It started with Sheffield and Giambi, and then continued with Farnsworth, Arod and Abreu, and now Cano is following their lead. Those are not the personality types which made the 96-00 run possible.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree with you on this beanball stuff. Nothing a player does on the field, no matter how classless or disrespectful, should give another player the right to throw a rock at him at 95 mph (especially at his head like last night). That is a battery (if not worse), and there is no place for it in either sports or society. If you don’t want Manny to pose and preen, strike his ass out. And by the way, Arod preens as much as anyone, including Manny. But Manny does pose the most. Since you hate Manny so much, can I assume that you were upset with Joba’s celebration on the mound when he struck out Frank Thomas to end the eighth and had a fist-waving convulsion on the mound?
I’m old school too – do not like the posing and preening at all. But I have to admit that Manny amuses me. Especially his “homeless”, skell-like persona with the baggy uniform and crappy hair. And he’s such a calm, confident, incredible hitter — a lot of fun to watch hit. He’s a unique character and good for the game despite his BS. Ya gotta admit that it was pretty funny when he went inside the green monster a couple of years ago to take a piss during a pitching change.
Finally, how much longer until you concede that Giambi and Moose are done? I’m guessing Moose will pitch himself out of the rotation by the middle of May, but who is gonna replace him? Too early for Joba I’m guessing.
April 18, 2008 at 12:48 pm |
I have to disagree with your disagreement. Sports have an acceptable retaliation point. Hockey has goons and fights, basketball has a hard-foul, football has the chin-check, and baseball has the HBP. All four also have a two-tiered penalty assosciated with them
hockey fight = 5 min major then game misconduct
basketball hard foul= has a technical and/or flagrant, free throws and then suspsension
football hit= unnecessary roughness then toss out and fine
baseball beaning= warning then toss-out and suspension
Farnsworth didn’t hit Manny, as the Red Sox so often do to Jeter, and he was warned. He claimed it wasn’t intentional, and there was no injury. If a guy was in his car in the front seat, and someone threw your metaphorical rock at his rear window, would that be attempted murder?
Manny is classless, and A-rod preening is not in the same hemisphere as Ramirez. Joba’s celebration is apples and oranges. K-rod does it, Papelbon does it, Unit does it; pitchers all over baseball get pumped up over an inning-ending K.
Look at this video as a random example. 10 seconds to first base. 10 freaking seconds in a game against the Royals.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Mq9-AnggIg
As for his look, this is not a matter of the black NBA player with tattoos and corn-rows being misunderstood by the average white fan. His look says “I am an amazing hitter, so trying hard at anything else, including looking like a professional, it beneath me.”
Was it simply a case of Ty Cobb being Ty Cobb, or was he rightly villified as a person while praised as a hitter? Ramirez is an arrogant SOB, and I proposed Farnsworth to drill him b/c I don’t care if he gets suspended, he sucks. I think someone ought to deck Ramirez , and keep doing it untill he stops acting like an ass. Nolan Ryan wouldn’t have taken that, nor Koufax, or Gibson, or any of the old-schoolers.
April 18, 2008 at 1:29 pm |
The goons and fights are what prevent me from being a hockey fan by the way. I think it’s an incredible sport when played correctly. But the cheap shots and fights ruin it for me. In any event, no punch, cheap shot or late hit can do the damage to the human body that a baseball travelling at 95 m.p.h. can.
Farnsworth threw that ball behind Manny’s head. If Manny leans back, he could get seriously injured if not killed. Your analogy misses the mark. The best way to hit a player is to throw behind him b/c the player’s first instinct is to jump back. Throwing at or behind a guy’s head is not baseball — it’s a crime. When Jeter gets plunked in the hands or ribs that’s baseball. He likes the ball outside and dives accross the plate to hit the outside pitch. Pitchers try to pitch him inside and every now and then he gets hit. That’s a legitimate risk associated with the sport, and pitchers should be allowed to pitch inside. Having some jackass throw a baseball behind your head to prove his toughness is not. Nor should it be allowed, much less cheered and celebrated.
And why romanticise about the good old days when it was acceptable to throw a baseball at someone on purpose? Removing that “tough guy” BS from the game is an advancement.
Bottom line — if you don’t want Manny to pose and preen (and he didn’t do much of either last night by the way), get a pitcher who can throw something other than a straight as an arrow 86 m.p.h. meatball. It’s not Manny’s fault that Moose sucks so bad — it’s moose’s.
April 18, 2008 at 2:59 pm |
Im sorry, but the best way to hit a player is to hit him, not to throw behind him. These guys make millions by hitting a catcher’s mitt from 60′6″ away. They can hit a guy if they want to. The behind the head throw is a purpose pitch, and you can count on one hand the number of times you’ve seen a guy get beaned in the past 15 years.
To contend that the best way to hit a guy is to throw behind him doesn’t make much sense, because if a pitch is behind you your instinct does not tell you to jump back, it tells you to duck, which is exactly what happened.
To say that no punch, cheap shot…etc can do the same damage as a 95 mph baseball also seems a bit off. Do you mean a baseball to the head? If not, I have seen plenty of guys get hit in the ribs, back, butt, thigh with a heater, and stay in the game. Have you ever seen a concussion from a football hit? Missing 1 game in football is equal to 11 games in baseball. What about what goes on in the pile for a fumble? Should all those “criminals” be suspended for acts like gouging eyes, biting, and scratching, which also have no place in society or sports? Poking an eye could end a career like that guy from the Cleveland Browns. it makes them no tougher.
Farnsworth did not throw a pitch to prove his toughness. If there was any intent, which I will not conceded there was (and proving intent is next to impossible) it was a message and not an attempt to injure. Equating a warning with a crime is not a fair comparison.
April 19, 2008 at 8:35 am |
Dude, you hit a player by throwing slightly behind him. It’s pretty basic stuff.
And of course I’m talking about the head — jaws and facial bones have been broken, eye sight has been damaged, and careers have been ruined. And that’s why Farnsworth’s conduct was so utterly deplorable. You don’t fuck around with pitches near the head intention notwithstanding — they’re more professional and appropriate ways of dealing with these matters. Throwing at or near the head is a no-no and should not be tolerated under any circumstances. Just another classless move by a punk playing for a classless organization. And in cheering Farnworth’s thuggery, your fan base betrayed the fact that they’re about as classy as Filly fans — who cheered when Reyes got hurt last night and booed when he got up. Let’s keep things in perspective — this is just a game. No reason for any fan to harbor the kind of hatred which would make you want to see an opposing team’s player purposefully and severely injured. It’s barbarian.
You want to dust a guy to keep him honest and protect the inside of the plate. Fine. You want to hit a guy in the ass to retaliate for one of your guys (Arod) getting hit. Fine. Just don’t go near the head. The risks are too great. It’s like firing a gun in a crowd. Whether it’s your intention to kill someone is irrelevant — you may kill someone anyway.
And yes. If a football player gouges another player’s eyes he should be suspended, arrested, convicted and incarcerated. Getting tackled, blocked, fallen on, etc., — those are the risks you assume when you play football — having your eyes gouged out by some overzealous, over-aggressive asshole is not.
April 19, 2008 at 2:24 pm |
“Just another classless move by a punk playing for a classless organization.” Dude, he wasn’t hit!! There was no contact made. I have the game on DVR, and I’ve watched the pitch several times during the course of this discussion. The pitch wasn’t even a terrible brush-back as far as brushbacks go. You are really going over the top with the “barbarian” “thuggery”, “classless” stuff. It seems like you are railing aginst the notion of headhunting vs what actually occurred in the game in question. If you can find it online, watch again, its hardly the crime you are portraying it as.
I didn’t hear any of this vitriol directed toward your boy Pedro, or the Mets for signing him. He has famously headhunted throughout his career, including against the Yanks, told Posada that if he had a problem with it he would hit him too, and hurled Don Zimmer to the ground rather than backpedaling away from the conflict.
Lets do some numbers again:
Farnsworth: 17 career HBP in 683 IP- 1 every 40 IP
Billy Wagner: 29 HBP in 777 IP- 1 every 26 IP
Mariano: 35 HBP in 959 IP- 1 every 27 IP
Pedro: 132 HBP in 2677 IP- 1 every 20 IP
So Farnsworth hits people at a much slower pace than most, including your guys. Kyle rarely hits people, and he didn’t hit Manny. Manny acted like an ass, and got a message. There is no inherent commentary about the Yankees as a team or Farnsworth as a person. If you pursue that line of reasoning, Pedro is positively barbaric in comparison to Farnsworth.
And if you call the Yankees classless, take a look at this article:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gZ3fKIj-9CxoCJT-pEAGd8FDwfUQD903V7S00
Donating a jersey designed to screw with your team to a Boston cancer charity, pretty classless huh?
April 19, 2008 at 4:23 pm |
It’s all about the head-hunting — and that’s exactly what Farnsworth was doing. It appears that Bob Watson agrees — three give suspension for the punk. I would have given him five.
April 19, 2008 at 7:38 pm |
Lets move on from Farnsworth.
I’m curious, if you retire Paulie’s number, do you retire Bernie’s as well? Comparable players (Bernie probably slight better), and Bernie, unlike O’Neil, was a career Yankee.
April 20, 2008 at 4:51 pm |
I can see it happening, but for some reason the fire that O’neill showed seemed to resonate stronger than the quiet professionalism of Bernie.
42 and 2 are guaranteed. I think if 21 and 51 go back into the rotation, they have to be kick ass players.
April 21, 2008 at 11:26 am |
42 is already retired because of Jackie Robinson — Mariano was grandfathered in.
Is it Joba time yet? And if so, who leaves the rotation? It’s looking like both kids could use a little more seasoning in the minors and that Mussina is toast. I’d give them all a couple of more starts before doing anything, but the natives (Hank) are getting restless.
April 21, 2008 at 11:50 am |
numbers can be retired 2x. yogi and Dickey. If you don’t think 42 for rivera is getting his number retired and a statue ur crazy.
April 21, 2008 at 2:44 pm |
Rivera is getting a statute and a ceremony, but his number is already retired and will never be worn again irrespective of any tribute to him.
You’re avoiding my questions about the staff. If you’re the GM, what would you do regarding Mussina, Hughes, Kennedy and Joba? I’d tell Hank to shut his trap and give them each a couple of more starts befopre making any decision. And there’s no guarantee that Joba won’t struggle as a starter as well.
April 21, 2008 at 9:11 pm |
hughes and Kennedy are in their first full seasons as starters, and Hank shouldn’t be popping off quite yet. you’re “mussina sucks” campaign is interesting, I’m still fine with him as a 5. Joba is a lock down bridge, and I want him there. Him and Mo = game over, and I like it that way.
April 21, 2008 at 10:19 pm |
And Mussina is my campaign spokesperson.
Do you want Joba in the pen all year? He’s awesome in the 8th, but it seems like a waste of his talent. I’d get him in the rotation by the middle of May. If that’s his long-term role, let him develop there rather than risk stunting his growth in the pen.