Daily Archives: March 20, 2008

When one thinks of cheating in today’s game, the issue of steroids is the first to come to mind. With steroids, excuses inevitably follow. We’ve heard players say they believed they were taking B-12 shots, or ordinary dietary supplements, or most preposterously, flaxseed oil.

Nearly three and a half decades ago, a different kind of cheating took place at Shea Stadium, where the Yankees were playing home games during the renovation of Yankee Stadium. This category of cheating may have been different, but the explanation offered after the game was no less ludicrous.

It was September 7, 1974. I like to call it the day that the "Super Balls" went flying, even though the balls were hardly intact. Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles became the epicenter of the controversy. So what exactly happened that Saturday afternoon at Shea Stadium, as Nettles and the New Yorkers hosted the Tigers? The two teams actually played a doubleheader that day, with the first game taking place without incident. Nettles did hit a home run in the lidlifter, but his bat didn’t break and he was not charged with, or even suspected of, having used a doctored bat. His two-run shot, however, couldn’t prevent the Yankees from dropping an 8-3 decision to the Tigers, who pounded Yankee starter Rudy May for six runs in three and one-third innings. Detroit’s Bill Freehan hit a home run of his own, part of a 2-for-5 effort as the Tigers’ cleanup man.

The real fun didn’t start until the second game, as left-handers Woodie Fryman and Larry Gura (in perhaps his lone highlight as a member of the Yankees; boy, Billy Martin hated him) engaged in a compelling pitchers’ duel. With the game scoreless in the bottom of the second, Nettles stepped to the plate against Fryman, who was usually brutal against left-handed hitters. On this occasion, Nettles found his way against Fryman, connecting on a home run. Once again, the bat did not break, and the Tigers expressed no suspicion that Nettles had done anything to alter or doctor the bat.

Well, those suspicions finally began to bubble during Nettles’ next at-bat, which came in the bottom of the fifth inning. Nettles took a swing and nicked one of Fryman’s pitches with the end of his bat, blooping a single into the outfield. While Nettles stood at first, thinking he had picked up his second hit of the game, he also realized that something was wrong. At the moment of contact with the ball, the top of his bat had come flying off the barrel, which was an unusual way for a bat to break into two pieces. Bill Freehan, the Tigers’ longtime catcher, also noticed something out of place, specifically with the larger piece of discarded wood that lay near home plate. Freehan recognized that the inside of the stained brown bat contained a foreign substance, a fact to which he alerted home plate umpire Lou DiMuro. After inspecting the bat, DiMuro called Nettles out for using an illegal bat.

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Behind a member of the actual starting rotation, Yankees B-team crushed the Blue Jays’ starters hitting behind a replacement pitcher. Final score: 7-2.

Lineup:

L – Johnny Damon (LF)
S – Melky Cabrera (CF)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
L – Hideki Matsui (DH)
R – Shelley Duncan (RF)
S – Wilson Betemit (1B)
R – Cody Ransom (SS)
R – Jose Molina (C)
R – Nick Green (3B)

Pitchers: Ian Kennedy, Dan Giese, Kyle Farnsworth, Joba Chamberlain, Jonathan Albaladejo, Chris Britton

Subs: Morgan Ensberg (1B), Bernie Castro (2B), Alberto Gonzaelez (SS), Chad Moeller (C), Greg Porter (RF), Justin Christian (CF), Jason Lane (PH/LF), Matt Carson* (PR/DH)

Opponent: The Blue Jays’ starters, including Alex Rios.

Big Hits: Consecutive RBI doubles by Wilson Betemit (2 for 4, BB) and Cody Ransom (2 for 3) in the second inning, a two-run double by Shelley Duncan (2 for 5) in the third, and a monstrous two-run jack to right field by Betemit (batting lefty, of course) in the fifth. Johnny Damon was 2 for 3 with a walk, Robinson Cano was 2 for 4.

Who Pitched Well: Ian Kennedy had a monster curve working as well as a good changeup and used those pitches to limit the Blue Jay’s starters to one run on six hits and no walks over 4 1/3 innings while striking out four. If there’s a knock on his outing it’s that he was a bit inefficient, using 75 pitches and throwing only 56 percent of them for strikes. Chris Britton pitched a perfect ninth, striking out one. Jonathan Albaladejo pitched around a single for a scoreless eighth. Dan Giese walked back-to-back batters in relief of Kennedy in the fifth, but one came on a questionable full-count call and he managed to strand both men.

Making his first short-relief appearance of the spring, Joba Chamberlain looked like the guy who posted the 0.38 ERA down the stretch last year by striking out the side on 11 pitches (nine strikes, of course). Just like last September, Joba was firing laser-guided rocket fastballs and unhittable sliders. Of course, he faced a trio of low-minors nobodies, but the performance was so dominant that it almost made me worry that Joba’s become a bit too fond and too comfortable in this new role, which could prove to be an obstacle to his return to starting. Indeed, check out some of these quotes:

Kennedy: “He looks like a different guy when he starts and relieves. He just goes after guys. I don’t know if he was holding back too much, but he looked like a different guy today.”

Joba: “It felt great . . . it’s like riding a bike. . . . You just attack the zone. You stop worrying about your mechanics and your abilities take over. It was back to the slider that I’m used to throwing, and not babying it. . . . If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Admittedly that bit about “if it ain’t broke” was in reference to his relief repertoire, not the role itself, but I do worry about the fact that Chamberlain suggests he might have been overthinking and babying things while working as a starter this spring. Joba seems to relish the big bad reliever role, but he absolutely must return to starting or he’ll be denying the Yankees and himself a chance to realize his full potential.

Who Didn’t: Kyle Farnsworth struck out two in his lone inning but also allowed a single, a double, a walk, and a run. Many point to Farnsworth’s failings as another reason why Chamberlain needs to be in the pen. If Chamberlain does wind up sticking in relief long-term, Farnsworth’s Yankee legacy will be even worse than his numbers will show.

Nice Plays: A relay from Shelley Duncan in the right-field corner to Robinson Cano to nail David Eckstein at third base trying to stretch a double in the first inning.

Ouchies: A week from tomorrow, Humberto Sanchez will throw off a mound for the first time since his Tommy John surgery.

Roster News: Catcher Kyle Anson was reassigned to minor league camp. He’ll land in A-ball somewhere depending on where Austin Romine and Jesus Montero wind up. In the Cody Ransom article linked to above, Bryan Hoch suggests that Brett Gardner will not make the Opening Day roster:

. . . there may be no room at the inn for Gardner, who could benefit more from playing every day in Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre than by riding the bench in New York. Girardi said he has encouraged Gardner along those lines, telling him to keep his head up and wait for his chance.

“I think he’s got a chance to be a really good big league player,” Girardi said. “It’s like the pitching staff here, obviously, we can only take so many when we leave [Florida]. If you don’t go with us when we break camp, you need to be ready at all times, because you never know when that call is going to come.”

*Matt Carson, on loan from minor league camp, got in the game as the Yankees brought a limited roster on the road. Don’t sweat Carson. He’s a 25-year-old outfielder with a career .250/.307/.397 line after six pro seasons. He hit about that in his first full season in double-A last year and won’t crack the starting lineup in Trenton or Scranton this year.

More: In order to avoid giving their divisional rivals an extended look at their starting pitchers with little more than a week left until the regular season, the Yankees will have Chien-Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte pitch minor league games tomorrow and Saturday while Darrell Rasner and Kei Igawa start against the Rays and Jays (who also happen to be the first two teams the Yanks will face in April). Indeed, the Jays did the same with Roy Halladay today, using Kane Davis against the Yankees in Halladay’s place. Speaking of Davis, there was a nice moment early in the game when he threw a looping curve up in the zone to Cody Ransom who crushed the pitch just as it began to break, hitting it so hard that he pulled it well foul. Ransom hit the ball like he knew he was getting a curve, and a close up of Davis on the mound soon after showed him trying and failing to suppress a giggle. Speaking of the broadcast, YES has used Bob Lorenz in the booth twice this week, first at Virgina Tech alongside Michael Kay, then again today alongside Ken Singleton. I don’t imagine the network plans to use Lorenz that way during the regular season, but I’d take him over Kay in a heartbeat (though that has more to do with Kay than Lorenz).

"It’s a combination of innings, success and where we feel he fits best now. It’s just something we decided as an organization, that this is the best place to start him this year." — Joe Girardi

Pearls of wisdom from the new Joe that set the local press aflame yesterday afternoon and into this morning. I’ve said in this space for months that Joba should be the heir apparent to Mariano Rivera. Whether that happens is something we’ll see a couple of years down the line, obviously, but the speculation will continue as long as he maintains anything close to the success level he demonstrated in his lightning-in-a-bottle debut from August through October.

In general, the reviews were mixed, as noted below:

Newsday‘s backpage: BREAK THE RULES

Breaking the rules, at least, in Ken Davidoff’s opinion, means moving him to the starting rotation at some point, perhaps even going to a six-man rotation at the end of the season.

The Post‘s George King (who this year has decided to use the pseudonym George A. King III), summed it up thusly:

"The Yankees look at Chamberlain’s four-pitch arsenal and believe he could be their ace for a long time. Nevertheless, they made the right move yesterday in leaving Chamberlain where he was last year, because until Chamberlain surfaced, the bridge between starter and Mariano Rivera had too many rotten boards."

Interestingly, no Joba-centric stories appeared in the Times, who instead focused on The Virginia Tech exhibition, C.C. Sabathia’s rejection of the Indians’ offer and speculation of his interest in the Yankees, and a meaninglessly hyped spring training game with the Red Sox (Confession: I hated having to hype these in my previous gig).

Today’s spate of Joba columns and articles — which you know will be picked up over the weekend when the Lupicas of the world return to Baseball from their vacation in Bracketville — on top of the numerous features written about him during the offseason, have made it clear to me that the media has anointed him the face of the New Yankees. Going back to the various dynastic years, you can look at Ruth and Gehrig, DiMaggio in 1936, then Mantle, Ford, Munson, Mattingly and most recently, Jeter as the names most closely identified with the team.

It’s happened quickly, and it can be dangerous. From the looks of things, Chamberlain has the perfect temperament to withstand the scrutiny.

And judging from the coverage, Joba Rules.

AS A FORMER EDITOR MARRIED TO AN ENGLISH TEACHER, THIS BOTHERS ME…

From GAKIII, referencing the Joba Rules: "This year, they aren’t in affect."

Folks, this is why spellcheck is a waste of time, and why we need to be teaching grammar and usage all the way through high school. I don’t blame George for the usage error noted above, because I know the perils of writing on deadline, and when you’re bleary-eyed, you miss things. I blame the copy editor. That’s a basic one that should have been corrected.

T-minus 11 days until Opening Day. Next week, a review of the Previews and Pullout Sections.

Enjoy the egg hunt …