PHILADELPHIA — Derek Jeter paused at the question.
“Can you hear anything here that you haven’t heard in Boston?” Jeter was asked prior to a Citizens Bank Park workout yesterday in preparation for tonight’s World Series Game 3 against the Phillies.
The gears in Jeter’s head started to grind and spit out, “Boston is pretty bad.”
So, was the answer no?
“I don’t want to say no, then they will figure out something new,” said Jeter, who gets verbally abused at Fenway Park more than any other ballpark. “We play in front of great crowds and I expect this will be a great crowd.”
Xavier Nady, currently on the disabled list, has experience in each hostile park. He says CBP tops Fenway in the vulgar department.
“Philly,” Nady answered immediately. “I remember when I came here with the Mets and San Diego they were pretty volatile. They go personal here.”
Eric Hinske was with Tampa Bay last year for the World Series against the Phillies when the Rays were stunned at the verbal abuse.
“Here,” said Hinske, who refused to give a reason.
A.J. Burnett, who might start Game 5 Monday on three days rest, couldn’t pick a winner.
“Boston is pretty crazy but when you warm up here they are right on top of you,” Burnett said. “But we expect that, we are coming into their house. It will be fun and exciting.”
Jorge Posada, whose father had a beer poured over his head in the seats during a Yankees-Phillies 2006 game, said, “They are an interesting group of people.”
“We play in Boston three times a year, I don’t know if it can get any tougher than that,” Mark Teixeira said.
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Manager Joe Girardi didn’t divulge who his right fielder will be for tonight’s Game 3. Girardi, who said Johnny Damon is in left, can stay with the right-handed hitting Jerry Hairston Jr. against lefty Cole Hamels (Hairston started Game 2) in right or go back to the ice-cold switch-hitting Nick Swisher who is batting .114 (4-for-35) in 10 post-season games. Hairston is 2-for-10 (.200) against Hamels and Swisher doesn’t have an official at-bat.
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George Steinbrenner returned to Yankee Stadium this week, but you would never know it from watching the games on TV.
Fox did not show the ailing Yankees owner during the first two games of the World Series after receiving a request not to from the team.
“The Yankees, through MLB, asked that we not show Mr. Steinbrenner on-air, and out of respect for their request, we complied,” Fox spokesman Lou D’ermilio said.
Steinbrenner’s appearance at the first two games of the World Series were his first at Yankee Stadium since April. The Yankees went to great lengths to keep the 79-year-old out of sight before and after both games.
After Game 2, reporters and photographers were prevented from entering the tunnel that leads to the clubhouses while Steinbrenner was being loaded into a van to take him from the Stadium.
George Steinbrenner will not attend any of the games at Citizens Bank Park. The family is expected to be represented by Hal and sisters Jennifer and Jessica.
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A flu bug has hit the Phillies. Bench player Greg Dobbs was sent home from New York on Thursday and is in the hospital. Pedro Martinez said after his Game 2 start he was also under the weather.
The Phillies are downplaying the severity of the condition but in the current climate swine flu is always a concern. They also are not saying how many players are sick.
“We’re trying to contain it,” Manuel said. “There’s some guys that have had some flu symptoms or had the flu, but I don’t know — I don’t know how we’re going to deal with that. We’ve got to play. So that’s kind of how I look at it. We’re trying to deal with that the best we can. There’s no sense in me sitting here running down who’s sick and who’s not and all this stuff. What the hell, we don’t want everybody to know what’s going on.”
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Bugs floated through the Yankees’ dugout during yesterday’s workout but nowhere near the amount of midges that invaded Cleveland during the 2007 ALDS and stuck to Joba Chamberlain.
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If rain doesn’t interrupt, the Yankees will play three games in three days for the first time this postseason which could put a dent in what has been a suspect Yankees bullpen in front of Mariano Rivera.
“With the depth of our bullpen, we should be fine,” Girardi said. “The one thing you have to be careful probably with is using Mo a couple of innings and limiting the amount of pitches you can use him.”
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Tim McCarver criticized Charlie Manuel during Game 2 on Thursday night for not having his runners going in the eighth inning with Chase Utley up and one out.
Utley hit into a controversial double play and McCarver said the Yankees might not have been able to turn it had Manuel sent Jimmy Rollins from second and Shane Victorino from first.
Manuel isn’t second-guessing himself.
“You know what, I didn’t even have to think about that,” Manuel said. “You know what, that’s bad baseball if Utley strikes out and Rollins gets thrown out at third base. Or if we hit a line-drive double play and we run into a double play, we’ve got one of the best hitters in baseball standing on deck. Between Utley and [Ryan] Howard we’ve got 80 home runs. We’ve got over 200 RBIs and things like that right there. That’s our game standing right there in front of us.
“And also it’s an out process there; it’s an out elimination process. We’ve only got five outs left in the game, we’ve got our biggest offensive threat standing at the plate. There’s no way we could afford to make a mistake there. Those guys have to hit for me. I’ll do that as long as I live. Actually I get upset when somebody asks me that because that’s not baseball. I don’t give a damn who’s played 20 years or 50 years and think they know; that’s not the right way to play the game.”
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The Phillies are 11-1 at Citizens Bank Park over the last two postseasons. — Additional reporting by Phil Mushnick