Today in The Journal News
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Mar 19, 2008 
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Journal News columnist Sam Borden captured the spirit of the day at Virginia Tech and what it meant to the Yankees.
We also had Joe Larese on hand and he put together this video.
Joe also contributed this photo gallery.
Meanwhile, Mo and the Moose were pitching in the minors. This notebook also has some news from the Va. Tech game.
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The Yankees play the Pirates at Bradenton tonight. The players don’t have to report until this afternoon, so check back later for the lineup and other news.
From this article…hadn’t read about it anywhere else:
“It was an emotional moment for Girardi, and there were plenty others. The deepest feeling among the Yankees, though, wasn’t with Girardi or A-Rod or even Jeter when he signed the back of Crevonis’ shirt. It was with Brian Brennan, a spring intern with the Yankees in Tampa who works as a clubhouse attendant at Legends Field. He normally wouldn’t have been on the trip at all, but he asked for special permission to come along so he could see the stone for his high school friend, Ross Alameddine, who died at age 20 only because he happened to sign up for a particular French class that met in Norris Hall on Monday mornings.
Sitting in the back of the locker room while the Yankees changed out of their uniforms late yesterday afternoon, Brennan talked about the strangeness of that realization, and how he and other friends spent last April 16 posting on Alameddine’s “wall” on Facebook as they watched the news unfold on television. “Let us know you’re OK,” they wrote. “We haven’t heard from you.”
They never did. Brennan wasn’t sure how it would feel to walk past his friend’s stone, and he said, “It was tough, really tough.” Then he straightened up. “But it’s good that people can see it, that it’s permanent there,” he said. “It will be there for everyone to see forever.”
As much as anything, that is what this game was truly about. There was healing. There was baseball. And 11 months after a day everyone will always remember, the Yankees and Hokies had a day that none of them will ever forget.”
Hey Pete..
Boston Herald says the Sox will boycott the Japan trip unless the coaches get paid the same 40k as the players.
I hope they skip it and start the season 0-2.
“Red Sox May Boycott Trip To Japan”
http://tinyurl.com/2o5o3l
Theo ripped on Mussina for complaining about going to Jpaan and now his players are thretening to skip the whole deal? hahah
woooooooooooooooooooow
I doubt they do it, but here’s the latest from boston.com:
http://www.boston.com/sports/b.....irked.html
-Popular pitchers on view: Rich Harden will start at Phoenix today, and Joe Blanton at Mesa, splitting the scouting hordes that have been watching the two all spring. Both are potential candidates to be traded, and the Yankees apparently have expressed interest in Harden, according to one source.
The A’s, however, won’t provide any real discount for Harden, even though he has been hurt much of the past three years. They probably would ask for right-hander Ian Kennedy, for starters, and perhaps pitchers Alan Horne and Jeff Marquez as well.-
Yanks interested in Harden
Billy Bean has to be smoking some serious stuff
I can’t believe Boston’s players are THAT huge crybabies…
…but maybe I can.
They want the coaches to get paid, which is respectable I guess. But boycotting? I really hope to start ’08 with the Sox 2 GB in the loss column
All it takes are a few bad apples to ruin the trip.
Aren’t they being magnanimous? Wait, magnanimous would be the players pitching in to give the coaches a little extra spending money.
If the regulars don’t want to go, take the B squad. Some of those guys would LOVE to pocket an extra $40K.
LOL. Daisuke in the players’ meeting, “What is the meaning of this word ‘boycott’. Different from ‘girlcot’?”
He must be thinking WTF. In certain cultures it’s a slap in the face to not honor a commitment.
I see people missed my Yankees interested in Rich Harden post
Here’s a question that maybe someone can answer.
Did any of the Yankees coaches or Devil Rays coaches receive such a stipend when THEY went to Japan?
If not, really no grounds to argue.
And, as someone brought up on the boston.com piece, if the players are THAT upset, since each of them makes AT LEAST the major league minimum (Which incidentally is 10 times the $40,000 in question) why don’t THEY pony up some cash if management won’t instead of possibly creating a furor over not going to Japan. (Which to me is dumb to begin with. Regular season games in the Far East. STUPID!)
Brandon: “I see people missed my Yankees interested in Rich Harden post
”
Just saw it, would love to get him, but not at the price of Kennedy. Horne, Melancon, maybe.
See, to me, it’s easier to move the kids we haven’t seen yet. We all saw Phil and Joba and Ian last year, and saw all of the be very good at times, so now we want to see a full year of “what can you do for us”.
But Harden or even Blanton, I sure wouldn’t mind either of them.
“Look,” Ortiz acknowledged, “from Day 1 I have said I don’t want to go to Japan, but I’m an employee. My boss wants me to go, so I am going.
“All the bitching and complaining I could do is not going to make any difference. So why do it? It’s not worth it.”
I wonder if Boy Wonder is going to start griping about his players complaining about going to Japan.
http://www.boston.com/sports/b.....t_baggage/
“They probably would ask for right-hander Ian Kennedy, for starters, and perhaps pitchers Alan Horne and Jeff Marquez as well.-”
Three of the Yankees top 10 pitchers for an injury waiting to happen? I bet that Harden won’t pitch as many innings as Kennedy this year.
Don’t you guys understand, this has nothing to do with guys like Manny and Ortiz who make millions of dollars (of course 40k is nothing to them) its about the coaches and trainers who were all guaranteed money for the trip. A trainer who makes maybe a couple hundred thousand this is a pretty big cut, that you thought you were going to get and maybe even spent. And you can say ‘Why don’t the players pay it, with all their money” Well thats not the point and kind of ridiculous, MLB guaranteed this money and they will eventually cave instead of taking this hit.
Everything I’ve read says the coaches/managers (mostly Francona who told them all) assumed they were getting the bonus/stipend (not MLB) – otherwise how do you think the As knew the deal and not the Sox. So when they As coaches said they weren’t getting anything, Francona looked into it.
I agree it’s not fair for the rich to get richer and not all to get the bonus, but they can’t say they didn’t already know about it.
from Boston.com
“Manager Terry Francona and his players were extremely irked after learning the team’s coaches were not going to get the $40,000 stipend they assumed they’d be getting for making the trip to Japan (players will also receive a payment). Francona had informed the coaches they’d be getting the stipend.
However, the Sox manager was told by members of the Oakland coaching staff that they were not being paid. Francona had thought it was unusual that one team’s staff would be paid and the other not. So he checked into it and found he and his coaches were getting nothing.”
it sounded like MLB didn’t guarantee that money, Francona just assumed, and told the rest of the coaching staff, without bothering to find out if his assumption is correct. if they already spent that money, then that’s their problem, most people know (hopefully) not to count their chickens before their hatched.
I don’t like selig, but this one seems to be on Francona for screwing up. if they boycott, they won’t get that 40,000 either. I’m of the mind that none of them should get the extra cash. This is part of their job. expenses relating to the trip should be covered, as they will, but why do they need extra for what amounts to a business trip? it continues to blow my mind how skewed many of these athletes perceptions of reality are. francona is saying that 40,000 is 2/5 of some of the coaches income? would you demand a 2/5 of your salary bonus for a week long business trip? its not like their paying for this trip out of pocket.
The Yankees donate their time and money to Va. Tech while the Red Sox gripe for a few extra dollars. Who is the Evil Empire now??
Look at all these bad apples complaining, they haven’t even left yet.
The screen in my elevator says “red soxs refuse to take field in dispute over coaches pay.
Um why not give you 40 grand to the coaches if you are so angry about it? Does Ortiz really need another 40 grand?
Nice pic, Pete- thanks!