Israel Matzav

Playing for the Yankees does not require a brain these days

Please forgive me for starting the day with a baseball post, but this is the most amazing piece of idiocy I can recall in a LONG time.

The Hated Yankees were in Boston last night to play the Red Sox, and here's what happened.

Let's go to the videotape.



In Thursday's Boston Globe, Adam Kaufman slams pitcher Michael Pineda's idiocy.

After days of discussion on the issue, including pregame media conferences and scrums with managers and players during this very series, Pineda decided to press his luck once more, this time layering what looked again to be pine tar on his neck.

How stupid could a person be? Seriously.

This isn’t homerism. If a Red Sox player was under the spotlight for supposed cheating and pulled the same stunt against the same opponent in the very next meeting without fear of penalty, I’d be equally curious how many fruits came in the basket.

With Pineda’s latest stunt, he’ll almost assuredly receive a 10-game suspension. Broken down, that may as well be one game for the use of pine tar, two games for doing it twice, and seven games for belligerent buffoonery.

Red Sox manager John Farrell said prior to the game on Wednesday, “I would expect that if [the pine tar] is used, it will be more discreet than last time.”

Nope.

Not on his hat. Not on his belt. Not on his shoe.

Instead, it glistened off his neck under the evening lights. Give him a hand for trying something different. At least that’d be clean this time.

Farrell didn’t sit back. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Or, as President George W. Bush said…well, you can’t get fooled again.

With that – and a swipe of Pineda’s neck, only 1 2/3 innings into his outing – umpire Gerry Davis made the only call he could. The pitcher was out. It’s amazing Davis didn’t walk back to his post behind the plate laughing the whole way.

Pineda decision was beyond dumb; it was selfish, and it may very well have cost the Yankees the game. Debate the importance of a contest on a chilly night in late-April if you’d like, but all 162 count the same in the end, even for clubs currently in first-place.

 The New York Yankees. All the stupidity that money can buy.

Labels: Boston Red Sox, morons

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:13 AM