Thursday, May 26, 2005
This is basically two posts in one day, separated only by the fact that we're going the vaguely insomniatic route tonight (not my fault, the rain slamming into the windows is keeping me up), and I try to avoid doing two posts in one day as much as is humanly possible, but just when I start to feel down about these latest games, I mope and mutter and read some of the articles written about them.
And I remember why I really, really love these guys.
In Tuesday night's game, A-Rod was hit by Frankie. Intentional, not intentional, debateable. Whatever. Later in the game, Paul Quantrill throws at The Anonymous Jason Smith. He misses, and is warned. Next pitch he throws at him again, higher, and hits him. Fracas, ejections, etc. We've already gone over all that. What I hadn't read were the reactions from the Tigers.
Said former Yankee Rondell White: "I lost a lot of respect for [Quantrill]. A lot of guys on the team feel the same way. To me, that's terrible... I'm glad Marcus [Thames] went deep to make his ERA go up. Let's put it that way."
Nice. The best, as usual, is Dmitri Young.
"I didn't think he was going to try again," Dmitri Young said, "but then he did. And then he had to go aim at the guy's head. [Quantrill] doesn't even know that [Smith's] wife is about to have a baby ... and then he goes at the guy's head? He can kiss my ass for all I care. Thank you. Print that."
The article had 'ass' replaced with '[rear end]', but c'mon, you put rear end in brackets and I'm pretty sure we all know what Dmitri said anyways. I'm not sure what all that bit with the baby is, but goddamn Dmitri, I heart you. It gets better, though. There was a little more chatter tonight. Apparently someone told Quantrill about Dmitri's comments and he felt inspired to respond.
"Dmitri wears his doo-rag too tight," Quantrill said. "He took out [John Flaherty] in a Spring Training game, made some wonderful predictions for his team and he's the one that wants to speak out about his ideas on the world. I don't need to hear Dmitri's opinion."
When reporters took that answer to Young, he suggested that Quantrill come over and loosen his doo-rag... "We're in the AL Central," Young said of his club. "We're the trash-talkingest division in baseball."
Every damn thing about this awesome. Quantrill just had to bring up the doo-rag, didn't he? Hilarity. Can we claim he's being mildly racist or something? That would be great. Funny enough on its own, though. And I can just see the reporters running from one clubhouse to the other, gleefully carrying these quotes and trying to egg the ballplayers on. And Dmitri 'suggesting Quantrill come over and loosen his doo-rag'.... and calling the AL Central the 'trash-talkingest division in baseball'..... my god. Every bad thing that happened on the field tonight has been nullified. I love baseball.
I love Dmitri Young.
edit: Additional chatter and a clarification. A-Rod was hit in the bottom of the 7th inning. Top of the 8th, Quantrill comes in and faces Brandon Inge, Ramon Martinez, and Vance Wilson all before getting to and plunking TAJS. Up 11-0 in the 8th, if you're going to be hitting guys, why not hit Inge? At least he's an everyday player, not some poor backup, and he's the first guy you face, so it makes some small degree of sense.
Dmitri wonders about the same: "If they hit [leadoff man Brandon] Inge down low, there's no problem with that. We hit their superstar after two home runs. That part of the game happens... But when you go after a backup player because you're scared to hit an everyday player, to me you're not a good teammate, because you hit a backup guy around the head."
Which sure sounds like the A-Rod HBP was intentional, but eh. Quantrill also had a little more to say.
"If they want to come out on the field and chirp, then just come out to the mound... When guys get wild when our guys are having a fantastic day at the plate, that leads to tension. The guy pitching for the Tigers, whatever his name is, it must have been the rain, the ball was slippery.''
His name is Franklyn German, Pauly. What is it with Yankees 'forgetting' the names of their opponents? Is this a 'we're too good to actually know who we're playing' kind of attitude, or are they all just so old that the Alzheimers is starting to set in?
2:46 AM
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