IT was about time. It was about time a Yankee pitcher protected his buds in the metaphorical foxhole. It was about time the Yankees got tired of having their hitters serve as standing targets in the box.
It was about time the Yankees started taking care of their own, because if not them, who?
It was Randy Johnson who stood even taller than 6-foot-10 at the Stadium last night, Randy Johnson who did the right thing by retaliating in the seventh inning of a 6-1 victory over the Indians after Derek Jeter had been buzzed up and in off the plate in the fifth and Jorge Posada had been hit on the right elbow by a pitch in the sixth by Cleveland starter Jason Johnson.
It was Randy Johnson, widely perceived as aloof and apart from his teammates, standing up for the captain and for the catcher to whom he did not want to pitch last season, and doing it even understanding that he’d thus earn an ejection and accompanying automatic one-turn suspension.
The Yankees’ reluctance to engage in the “Chicago Way,” as memorably described by the Sean Connery character in “The Untouchables” movie has been mind-boggling. It’s as if the near-riots on the field last decade that ensued when Toronto’s Roger Clemens went head-hunting on pinstripes or Baltimore’s Armando Benitez got Tino Martinez square in the back had been purged from the authorized Yankeeography.
Not that there was a riot in The Bronx last night, not even when Alex Rodriguez struck out twice, if you can believe that. And not that Randy Johnson, as sharp as he’s been all year, even hit anybody on the other side. But he purposefully came far enough inside on his first pitch to Eduardo Perez with one down in the seventh so that no questions could be asked regarding his intent after both benches had been warned after an angry Posada had been hit.
If Randy Johnson feigned ignorance responding to queries about the incident, his teammates did not, even as they wisely maintained a required level of circumspection. Neither they nor the pitcher needed to be reminded that Jeter had missed three games altogether and three more in the field after being hit by a pitch by Baltimore’s Rodrigo Lopez on June 4, and that Jason Giambi had missed two games after being hit by a pitch on Saturday by Oakland’s Brad Halsey.
“When I played for Tony, if you hit one of ours, we hit one of theirs,” said Giambi, referring to his time in Oakland with manager Tony La Russa. “That’s how you keep guys on the field.”
Again. The last few seasons have featured a bizarre approach of pacifism in which Yankee pitchers have been consistently willing to turn the other cheek after Yankee batters had been hit on other body parts, or if not hit, then close enough to discern intent. There was the memorable playoff brawl at Fenway featuring Don Zimmer and Pedro Martinez at the emotional height of the rivalry, but that was the exception to the rule.
The Yankees far too often had taken what appeared an “every man for himself” approach that made the conglomerate appear more a combine of independent contractors than a team. There are always reasons that can be found not to retaliate – score too close, time not right, fear of escalation – but they so often sound like excuses made by wimpy hockey teams who won’t protect their stars from abuse.
But this was not the case in last night’s second straight and wholly encouraging victory that appears to have restored the club’s equilibrium following a dispiriting four-game skid.
“We’ve been getting a lot of guys beat up lately,” said Rodriguez, who added that he believes he, “deserves” being booed because he’s “been pretty miserable lately.”
“[Johnson’s retaliation] is a part of the game I don’t want to talk about too much,” A-Rod said, “but guys have to take care of each other.”
About time.