All hail Helen!!

All hail Helen!!
Helen Carmona and your humble blogger

Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Thank you, Andy

Finally, and for once.

After years -- YEARS! -- of watching Boston pitchers plunk Yankee batters, and then turning around and watching Yankee pitchers do nothing -- NOTHING! -- about it, finally, Andrew Eugene Pettitte did the honorable thing during Monday's 8-4 shellacking of the Red Sox. He gave David Ortiz's nipples a brush burn. Halle-effing-lujah!

If there is one thing Yankee fans implored, in fact begged shamelessly, from Joe Torre, it was to turn the Yankee pitchers loose, to take the leash off and let them retaliate as Boston took aim at our best batsmen. Torre, praised for his maturity in some corners, seemed to forget the baseball era which forged him, and the pitchers -- Bob Gibson ring any bells? -- whom he caught as a young catcher. (And if there was anything more infuriating than Torre's refusal to dance with the Red Sox, it was Boston manager Terry Francona's smug What? My pitchers don't throw at anyone! expression.)

Time after time, after time, after nauseating time, Jeter, then A-Rod, then Jeter again, then Giambi, then Jeter -- AGAIN! -- then Melky, then.... the list never stopped. And when Julian Tavares nailed Jeter in the elbow pad in yesterday's second inning, Yankee fans wondered: with Joey G. now in the big chair, would this be the day?

And it was.

Pettitte didn't hit Ortiz. Didn't even put him down on his ass. But that fastball in the third inning sent a message. It's a new day, Boston. That $hit you've been pulling for years is gonna stop, and if it doesn't, fine. The gloves are off. The bravado runs in both directions now. And Yankee fans loved it. (And we didn't need Pettitte's postgame comment, "There's no doubt I backed him off," to know that Pettitte put that pitch exactly where he wanted it. The look on Pettitte's face as he got the ball back from catcher Jorge Posada was confirmation enough. There was nothing sheepish or apologetic in Pettitte's eyes. It was a total purpose pitch.)

Murray Chass has a column in today's Times bemoaning the passing of the tit-for-tat era when baseball players were men taking care of business on the basepaths. Chass' piece has the tone of an elegy, with Cincinnati Rewds manager Dusty Baker all but eulogizing throughout the column. But if yesterday was any indication of things to come, then there is at least one place where baseball's bygone era ain't quite so bygone: that strip of highway between the Bronx and Beantown.

And Hallelujah! for that, as well, because that's baseball as it ought to be played.

More to the story

And forget the brushback pitch that Pettitte used to buzz Ortiz. That entire at bat was sensational. Pettitte may not have been lightning crisp yesterday, but that at bat in the third inning was beautiful to watch.

After the up-and-in got Ortiz's attention, Pettitte laid a beautiful slider out off the right edge and got a swinging strike. After a foul ball, Pettitte ended the at bat and the inning with another textbook breaking ball that Ortiz -- who hits .333 lifetime off Pettitte; Yikes! -- had no chance of reaching.

Pettitte's quick step off the mound was noted, and it showed a spark that may indicate that he is ready for the season and for the challenge of shaking off all the Congressional hearing/HGH/Roger Clemens stuff that many writers speculate will dog Pettitte this season. It sure didn't seem to have any effect on him yesterday.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think this merely confirms the roles have reversed. During those years, Torre's Bombers didn't need to bother with retaliation (and the resulting fines, suspensions, possible injuries and general 'goonness') because the Yankees would always beat their opponents on the field. Tampa Bay wants to hit Jeter? Swell, how do you like us when we're thumping your asses 12-2 all season? Yeah, that's what I thought. Boston wants to knock O-Neil down? Great, enjoy second place, losers.

Now Boston is the King Top Dogorama. And it's the Yankees who need to throw at opposing hitters -- all in the name of demanding respect, of course. I never thought I'd see the day when a George Steinbrenner-owned team would need to throw at and spike out a Tampa Bay Ray (is that really their name now?) in order to feel good about themselves.

Sad times in Bomber Town indeed.

Wolf Williams said...

There's nothing sad about what happened Monday, and if you think so, then I think you're missing the point.

No one is advocating that the Yankees initiate bean brawls, or even resort to intimidation in order to win games. What Yankee fans want is a team that takes care of itself according to the unwritten rules of baseball, and I think we all know what those rules are.

A baseball field is not a society cotillion; it's a competitive theater where adrenalin sometimes gets the better of people. For years, the Red Sox have been taking advantage of Joe Torre's mature -- some would say passive -- nature, and Yankee fans were tired of it.

No one wants to see black and blue ballplayers, but showing a willingness to stand up for yourself is not the same as resorting to thuggery.

Anonymous said...

Nice use of "cotillion."

Finally, a Yankee blog for the erudite.