FORT MYERS, Fla. – The bad blood continued to flow between the Yankees and Rays yesterday.
Joe Girardi repeated the Rays were wrong when Elliot Johnson fractured Francisco Cervelli’s right wrist Saturday when the Rays’ infielder tried to run over the Yankees’ top catching prospect at the plate.
Adding extra zest, Don Zimmer, the man who brought Girardi to The Bronx in 1996, didn’t understand the Yankees manager saying it was wrong for Johnson to bury a catcher in spring training.
Finally, Shelley Duncan admitted he didn’t know what he would do to a Rays catcher Wednesday if there was a bang-bang play at the plate even if Girardi told him to lay off the catchers in spring training.
“The plate was blocked and our guy bowled him over,” Zimmer, a Rays senior advisor, told reporters in St. Petersburg.
“What’s that got to do with spring training? That’s the way to play the game.”
Cervelli is expected to miss eight to 10 weeks. He was slated to start the season at Double-A Trenton.
As Joe Torre’s bench coach prior to the 1996 season, Zimmer lobbied the front office to make a very unpopular trade for Girardi.
“I’m talking about a guy who’s like a son to me. I can’t believe that he went after it the way he did,” Zimmer said. “And being a catcher on top of it. You block the plate.
“If I slide into him and break a leg, nothing is said. Instead of breaking my leg I bowl him over and it’s not the right play? Well, to me it’s the right play, spring training or no spring training. Play the game the right way.
“To me, our kid played it the way he thought it was right, and I think it was right. I’m surprised they made such a big thing out if it. I was dumbfounded. Of all people, I mean Girardi’s a tough guy, a tough catcher. I don’t know what spring training has got anything to do with it.”
Zimmer said Girardi was wrong to criticize Johnson’s play.
“This guy’s my friend,” Zimmer said. “He’s his own man. I’m my own man. I think he was out of line.
“Whether he likes that or not, that’s the way I feel.”
Saturday, Girardi strongly indicated since Johnson was the second Rays runner to crash into a catcher in a week, manager Joe Maddon should have said something to his team after the first incident. Yesterday, Girardi didn’t back down.
“It’s disheartening, it’s a spring training game and I just don’t understand it,” said Girardi, who refused to address Zimmer’s comments.
Maddon was quoted in yesterday’s St. Petersburg Times as saying, “I never read that rule before” regarding Girardi saying Johnson’s play was out of bounds in spring training.
“I am all for playing hard, you should play hard, but that’s a play there is no memo for,” Girardi said. “But his comment after the last one was ‘We would like to see more plays like that from our team.’
“Then kids can’t decide when to do it and when not to do it.”
The Yankees and Rays meet three more times in spring training – Wednesday being the next – and have 18 regular-season games on tap.
“If we have a chance to take down their catcher, we should, and if they have a chance to take down our catcher, they should,” Maddon said. “That’s the way the game is played.”
Duncan, who asked Girardi before the games started what was expected of him on the bases, said because the Yanks are playing the Rays on Wednesday, he won’t know what to do until he rounds third.
“I don’t know, that will be determined between third and home,” the ultra-aggressive Duncan said.