Daily Archives: January 9, 2004

The amount of words devoted to Pete Rose this week has been predictably overwhelming. I’m back to feeling ennervated by the whole thing. Buster Olney is just one of many to weigh in with his take (Rob Neyer also has a good column delineating the history of gambling in baseball), but my favorite bit comes from Rob Dibble, who played for Rose and remains an ardent supporter of the Hit King:

I was in the locker room, when we’d joke that if two cockroaches took off across the floor, Pete would bet on who’d make it first. And I was also on the field when Pete managed the Cincinnati Reds to countless wins.

As my cousin Jonah remarked, somehow, just somehow, I think we would find a way to count all those wins.

You didn’t think we saw the last of Don Zimmer now did you? Popeye has been hired as an advisor by the Devil Rays. According the AP:

Zimmer, who turns 73 on Jan. 17, will be in uniform as a coach during spring training and for pregame practices at all regular-season home games.

It’ll be good to have Zim hanging around Lou. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before he and George engage in some backpage-tabliod fun. I wonder if there will be any fights in the East this year. I can’t remember the last time the Yankees got into a bench-clearing rumpus, but I don’t believe they’ve had one since Giambi’s been on the team. Can I get a little help on this one?

Rick Down, who was let go as the Yankees hitting coach at the end of the 2003 season (and subsequently replaced by Don Mattingly), was hired as the Bombers’ coordinator of minor league instruction yesterday. This continues a time-honored tradition under George Stienbrenner’s watch of placating fired employees by re-hiring them (or merely throwing money in their bank accounts). That’s Yankee loyalty, Yankee pride at work for you.

Life with George often feels like Stienbrenner’s version of Crime and Punishment. For instance, David Cone is in Yankee-limbo after walking away from a TV deal with the YES Network last season to attempt a comeback with the Mets. The Boss isn’t ready to invite him back yet. Roger Clemens will certainly join Cone in Siberia should he choose to pitch for the Houston Astros in 2004. Nobody will be terribly surprised if the Rocket pitches again, right? If he does, he can count on waltzing into the Hall of Fame in a Red Sox cap. While that would be fitting, Clemens might be having drinks with friends and family elsewhere during his induction ceremony.

Finally, while Erick Almonte cleared waivers, third-string catcher Michel Hernandez (who defected from Cuba in 1996 and signed with the Yankees in 1998), was claimed by the Red Sox. As Bob Hohler notes in The Globe today, it is “the first major league movement between the archrivals since 1997.”