THE MARCH TO 3000 HITS STALLED

***SORRY, DEREK***
Friday's game against Tampa was postponed because of rain, but the game won't be made up as part of a doubleheader today. It will be played on September 22nd, an off-day for both teams and Tampa already in NY for two games with the Yanks.
Doesn't playing the makeup today seem all too logical? With the All-Star game looming, a four day break for most of the players (more on that later), it seems they would be able to handle it. But no, Tampa Bay refused to play the twi-night doubleheader. So who ends up suffering here? Why it's the fans, according to the Yankees, the fans who paid good money and made arrangements to be in attendance when Derek Jeter reached the 3000-hit mark.
"We made every effort to do it [Saturday]," said Randy Levine, the team president. "But we only do what we can do. I just feel bad for all of our fans."
"People have made a lot of arrangements to try to see this happen on the day that they picked," Joe Girardi said. That was important to us because of what our fans have meant to our organization."
Said Brian Cashman, "...I can't control a decision that another organization has. We did our vote; they did their vote. Their position is their position, for whatever reason. That's their right."
Aren't those Tampa Bay Rays terrible? Well, maybe not. When you schedule a day-night doubleheader, according to the union contract, both teams have to agree. HOWEVER, if the Yanks had decided to play a straight doubleheader, two games for the price of one, the Rays would not have had a choice. Of course, that would mean the Yanks would have to give up a paid home game, which, at today's ticket prices, means the loss of millions of dollars.
"Our decision to do a split had nothing to do with Derek Jeter," Cashman said. "It had to do with business reasons. From all the baseball operations standpoints, it's fan-friendly, it's Jeter-friendly, it's team friendly."
As Wallace Matthews of ESPN,NY says, "Of course, it is none of those things. It is, however, bottom-line friendly..."
So, to heck with El Capitan, Derek Jeter, and to heck with the fans, but keep those cards and letters coming in, folks. There is a blog, sanctioned by the Yanks, called "It's all about the money."
It certainly is.

***WHEN IS AN ALL-STAR NOT AN ALL-STAR?***
It's when he's elected to start by the fans and he decides to skip the event. I understand if a players is injured and can't play, but when it becomes an epidemic, you have to wonder what's going on. First, Mariano Rivera opts out because of tightening in his arm. Upon hearing that news, Joe Girardi needed massive doses of Xanax until he was told that rest was all that was needed. Now Jeter won't play because he needs to rest his calf. A-Rod is not playing because of a balky knee. You will probably see all three of these guys play this weekend, but not in the ASG. What's the big deal? If they follow the usual All-Star Game form, A-Rod and Jeter would probably play three innings and bat once, and Mo wouldn't even need to pitch. I guess when you have been in as many all-Star games as those three, it's no big deal anymore. Try telling that to Nick Swisher, who did everything but hire a campaign manager to get in last year, or to a deserving David Robertson, who was dying to get called on. Maybe to "It's all about the money," we should add, "It's all about the ego."

***THE BRAWL IN BEANTOWN***
Baltimore reliever Kevin Gregg and Boston's David Ortiz exchanged haymakers last night. Luckily, neither player connected, but it wasn't for lack of trying, just lack of ability. Big Papi had homered earlier in a Red Sox blowout, but the real fireworks occurred in the eighth inning. After taking a couple of inside pitches, Ortiz hit a lazy pop fly to center and took his own lazy stroll to first. Pitcher Gregg took exception to that and gestured to Ortiz to run hard, which he did...but out to the mound. Nobody got hurt physically, but there are probably some bruised egos in both clubhouses. What Ortiz did, while shameful, seems to be standard practice for most major leaguers when the out seems obvious and Gregg was understandable frustrated just by being a member of the Orioles, who have been doormats for a while now. We may see more "action" today.

Our sympathies go out to the family of Shannon Stone, a Texas Ranger fan who died after a fall while trying to catch a ball for his 6-year old son, that was tossed into the stands by Josh Hamilton. It's a shame when an attempted good deed has such tragic results.

CP-