TAMPA – Joe Girardi has really shown me something.
He criticized the Rays and their manager Joe Maddon for the spring training body block of young catcher Francisco Cervelli on Saturday that resulted in a fractured wrist for the Yankees top catching prospect. Girardi made it clear there is a right way and a wrong way to play this game.
And make no mistake, this was wrong. By his strong comments the new Yankees manager also sent a message to his players: We are in this together.
“I think for us it’s always important to stick together,” Alex Rodriguez said yesterday at his locker. “(On Saturday) Joe set the tone for us and that’s part of being responsible and part of being our leader.”
If an opponent such as the Red Sox or anyone else does something annoying, say Jason Varitek tries to stick his catcher’s mitt down A-Rod’s throat or in the face of Derek Jeter, Jason Giambi or the 25th man, you can expect the Yankees to have their teammate’s back.
Girardi was seething Saturday, saying Elliot Johnson’s hit on Cervelli was “uncalled for” and that spring training was not the time to make such a play.
Maddon, who has encouraged his team to play more aggressively this spring – remember the Rays have been the AL East’s punching bag since their inception – responded by saying, “I never read that rule before.”
The Rays’ Carl Crawford ran over Houston catcher Humberto Quintero earlier in the week, so the Rays have established a tone of aggressive spring training play under Maddon.
It’s interesting to note Hall of Famer Yogi Berra said there were “lots of times” he was run over in the regular season, but he never got pancaked in spring training. Never.
Girardi made his point even stronger yesterday, saying, “It’s just disheartening in a spring training game. I just don’t understand it. I’ve told all my players to play hard, but when you do something like that you take the chance of getting someone hurt and we got a guy hurt.
“They also take a chance of getting their guy hurt – separated shoulder, and I’m all for playing hard, you should play hard, but that’s a play that there is no memo, but (Maddon’s) comment after the last one when Crawford did it, ‘We’d like to see more plays like that from our team.’
“Sometimes kids can’t decide when to do it and when not to do it. It’s scary to me.”
Girardi, like Berra, said he was never run over in spring training, either. Plenty of times during the real season, but never in the spring.
Imagine if Jorge Posada took such a hit and was knocked out for 10 weeks like Cervelli. Posada did not see the play, the Yankees veterans were gone by that time, but after reading comments from Maddon, Posada said he could not blame the youngster Johnson, noting, “It’s the manager’s fault. There’s not much you can say, the kid is trying to make the club and trying to impress the manager, there’s other ways to do it.”
The Yankees will play the Rays again Wednesday. Andy Pettitte will start. Spring training is a time for a starting pitcher to get his work in, not settle scores. “But I have seen situations in spring training where guys have been hit,” noted Pettitte, who added his plan was to go about his usual spring training business Wednesday.
There is a time and a place for everything. The two teams play 18 times. The Yankees will get their shot. I would not be surprised to see Girardi try to talk to Maddon Wednesday about the play. Girardi said he does not know what he will do at this point.
Whether he gets into it with Maddon really doesn’t matter. Girardi has made his point. Twice. He stood up for his players and essentially said this was a bush-league play by the Rays.
One of the reasons Girardi was hired was to bring more fire to the Yankee dugout. And he has. He’s also loosened up the clubhouse and is working on getting the Yankees to bond as a team.
All that is happening now.