Comments on: Today in The Journal News

By: Babe's Ghost

Babe's Ghost — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:50:59 +0000

Come on Pete, you call that a statistic? That’s like saying the pitcher with more wins is the best. Maybe, or maybe his team scores four+ runs every night.

You need to correct for plate appearances, then weight for control (BB/9) to distinguish between wildness and intimidation then we can begin to talk about HBP. An even better metric would add a weight for the quality of the hit batsman since as Varitek implied, the Red Sox concentrate on throwing at good hitters.

By: pounder

pounder — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:32:30 +0000

They sell beer at the Stadium?????

By: Y's Guy

Y's Guy — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:49:03 +0000

enrique johnson’s( play was hard-nosed, possibly a little too hard nosed for ST) but not that egregious. hurting cervelli was not the runner’s intent and cervelli blocking the plate (a little too well according to john flaherty) contributed to it.
duncan’s play was bush league all the way. he inteded to spike the guy, apparently in the crotch, without having any chance of being safe on the play.

By: Yankee Jay

Yankee Jay — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:42:26 +0000

K.Huiz

HA, TOO FUNNY!

By: Stormrider6

Stormrider6 — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:29:21 +0000

I see the HBP stats, but how about how many times a pitcher has thrown a BAT at a hitter… I think that issue requires some attention. On my recollection alone, Yankee pitchers beat out all other teams by about 100%. Or maybe 50%, since it was only about half of the bat…

By: Yazman

Yazman — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:26:15 +0000

“Yankee batters have been hit 20 more times in the last 486 games than their pitchers have hit somebody.”

The Yanks led MLB in OBP last year, which means we had the most opportunities to get HBP. I think that nearly explains away the delta.

By: G. Love

G. Love — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 15:04:49 +0000

There’s a real division growing in the fanbase and Pete is exploiting it wonderfully of late.

You have the holier than thou Yankee fan who thinks this organization is above backing it’s players up and we shouldn’t be bothered with such cavemen antics. “We’re better than that” they’ll decree.

They show up in these threads and tell Pete, “good boy”.

Then you have the rest of us who missed having a team with some cojones.

Who see the fact that even though we’ve won a lot of games recently, this team has never had a consistent fire and there never was a unified team attitude.

Sadly, I blame Jeter (and Torre posthumously) for that. They threw a wet blanket over this team and called it “being professional”.

Somehow I think winning a lot made them think they were obligated to act a certain way, rather than just be ballplayers.

Exactly, which team out of the 4 that won the series under Torre were choir boys?

When did being successful get equated with being aloof, professional and workmanlike?

It’s the wrong attitude to have in sports.

The teams that win championships have fire and passion, not professionalism and class.

How professionalism and class somehow got equated to being the best in sports is beyond me.

The worst thing that happened toward the end of the Torre era was this impression that our guys played the game right and did eveything the “right” way. The supposed Yankee way.

Give me a break.

When did that become the Yankee way.

I mean, yeah, the Yankees have to keep their hair cut and faces shaved, but outside of that, this team has always been comprised of many guys who you wouldn’t exactly call model citizens. That includes many of the Yankee greats enshrined in monument park.

I’d rather my favorite team be a lot more human and play with passion and unity and not try to be white knight robots and ambassadors of the game.

I’d rather see them make mistakes, say the wrong things and defend their teammates in the pursuit of their ultimate goal.

Often in life, the people who seem to be above reproach and have the cleanest records take the biggest falls when they are proven to be human and flawed like the rest of us.

I want a human, flawed team. I don’t want a team that has a false image of being above the game.

I’m hoping that Girardi’s era brings some humanity back to this team.

We don’t want wrestlers. We just want to see they care about each other and most importantly about winning.

By: Baja

Baja — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:40:59 +0000

Perception is reality. Unscientifically, the Cervelli play and Duncan’s slide are (generally) perceived as hard nosed/excessive and “borderline criminal”/justifiable retaliation, respectively. Therefore, two realities exist. One where Tampa is David bringing it hard to Goliath, and one where (as nomaas puts it) there’s a new sheriff in town.
Both are, essentially, equally valid & have numerous supporters who are certain their reality is the obviously superior one. In the end, the only reality that matters is the W/L reality, which perennially relegates Tampa to doormat status. I’ll take that over meaningless HBP numbers anyday.

By: Y's Guy

Y's Guy — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:18:41 +0000

i dont care what others think of the yankees, but when you talk about the class of an organizationl, this reflects on that. i dont think less of my team because of what shelley did, i was just passing on the observation of a neutral observer.
it was a class-less play and it reflects badly on duncan, girardi and the yankees

By: Steve Lombardi

Steve Lombardi — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 14:17:14 +0000

Pete – on the HBP, this may interest you:

http://www.waswatching.com/arc.....s_bat.html

Personally, I found it shocking.