UPDATE: It appears I misinterpreted the use of the term “indication of injury” in the AP story. The beef was not that Girardi thought there was no evidence that Beckett was injured. Rather, he was protesting the fact that Delcarmen was called for before the umpires were informed that Beckett was injured (i.e. it was “indicated’ that he was injured). My bad on misinterpreting that.
That said, it hardly matters. If the focus of the protest is the exact order of the switch — that the umps should have been told before the signal went down to the pen — we’re in the land of overly-legalistic b.s. Technically wrong to do things in that order? Sure. But everyone knew what the situation was within the about 10 seconds, it was right to give Delcarmen as many pitches he needed because there was an injury, and there was ultimately no harm done to anyone as a result.
8:43 A.M.: One last bit from the Yankees-Red Sox game: Joe Girardi finished the game under protest. That never works, but it’s fun all the same.
The basis of the protest: Josh Beckett gave up a two-run double to Robinson Cano, after which Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell went out to the mound. Beckett and Farrell talked things over, but then Farrell motioned to the bullpen for Manny Delcarmen to come into the game. Beckett then left with the trainer, as he was suffering from back tightness. Because it’s an injury situation, Delcarmen got as many warmup pitches as he wanted.
The Yankees protested this because, according to the AP story, “there was no indication of an
injury to Beckett by that point.”
To which I ask, what “indication” is necessary? Must Beckett hop around holding his toe as if a cartoon anvil fell on it? Does Joe Girardi need to to see little animated lighting bolts and ouchy marks flashing around Beckett’s lower back? The guy left with the trainer, and I’m sure someone on the field said something about an injury, if not immediately, then as soon as Girardi asked about it. While I suppose it’s possible that this was all a big conspiracy to cover for the fact that Francona didn’t get Delcarmen up in the pen fast enough, it’s not like Beckett hasn’t had back issues already this season.
The chances of this protest being upheld are virtually nill so who cares, but even as far as unsuccessful protests go, this one seems rather weak.
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- Sonny - May 19, 2010 at 8:56 AM
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I’ll tell you what’s wrong with Beckett’s back , it’s called a yellow streak . The Yankees own this guy, much as they do Papelbum . The Blosox escaped another ass whipping last night due to some errors. It will make no difference in the long run , when at full strength the Yankees will win it all again . Remember where you heard it .
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- Church of the Perpetually Outraged - May 19, 2010 at 9:02 AM
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I think the protest involves the protocol of how everything happened. Since Farrell signaled to the BP for a pitcher first, then claimed the injury after the fact it sounds more like a convenient excuse. Normally when a pitcher is injured they signal after the fact.
But none of this explains losing a game up 5-1 in the 8th inning. I’m trying to practice Zen Baseball, but after these last two games something is going to get broken.
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- Moses Green - May 19, 2010 at 9:04 AM
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Thanks Sonny, you’re as stupid as Girardi. Hey Cement Head Joe: the “indication” was that he missed his last start with back spasms. I hope the Yankees follow through and formally protest the game, just because I love hearing all the whining from the Bronx. Sad, really.
First the whole “Universe” imitation/overreaction, now this. 2004 and 2007 obviously did permanent psychological damage to the over-privileged Yankee fan base. Such entitlement issues. Pathetic.
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- STP - May 19, 2010 at 9:08 AM
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Wow, what an unbelievably risky prediction, Sonny. The Yankees will win it all this year? I WILL remember just where I heard it first!
Sorry, but ridiculous people deserve ridicule. I will not try to hide the fact that the Red Sox did NOT have a good offseason, they are not having a good season, and frankly I don’t expect them to. And yes, I’m a Red Sox fan.
Nor will I hide the fact that Beckett and Papelbon cannot get the job done against the Yankees (although they are not alone in that regard). In fact, I bench Papelbon in my fantasy league when he plays the Yankees. (worked out pretty well so far this year).
But to call Beckett yellow is just not intelligent. I can live with “not very good this year” or “getting owned by the Yanks this year”. But yellow is simply inaccurate and incendiary. He just had his last start skipped for back issues and was 102 pitches deep in the 5th inning when he reinjured it.
The Red Sox have a pretty good history of owning Mo as well, and I definitely don’t think I would ever use the words “afraid” to describe him in any way.
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- Old Gator - May 19, 2010 at 9:19 AM
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Girardi should stop wasting his protests on the league office and take them where they’re needed – Bangkok, for example.
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- Darryl - May 19, 2010 at 9:24 AM
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Of course no one but Beckett knows for sure if he was actually hurt or not, but it sure did look hinky to me. I won’t go so far as to say they cheated, but it sure did make me go “hmmmmmm.”
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- BC - May 19, 2010 at 9:29 AM
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Beckett’s back was bothering him because he keeps having to turn around and watch all the line drives and bombs being hit off of him this year.
And BTW, has a protest actually ever WORKED in the last 30 years? Only one I ever remember working was the Pine Tar Game.
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- cson - May 19, 2010 at 10:04 AM
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Sonny considering Vegas has the Yankees to win it all, your originality of “you heard hear first” is #$## stupid, you are the number 1 reason why I hate yankee fans… you heard it here first
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- YANKEES1996 - May 19, 2010 at 10:33 AM
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I’m not saying that I would have protested the game if I were in Girardi’s shoes but it appeared that Beckett’s injury may have been one of convienence to help out Francona not having called on a relief pitcher soon enough to start warming up. Cano’s hit and RBI’s could have been the begininng of a rally and the additional time given to DelCarmen may have killed that rally but the Yankees left a small village on base last night and the rally was probably too little too late.
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- Star777 - May 19, 2010 at 10:39 AM
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Thats the difference between Yankee fans and red sox fans, you don’t expect them to win, and we know the yankees will. The bottom line is that our players feel the same way, they expect to win and have done so 27 out of the last 87 years. Basically we’re batting .310 when it comes to rings. Red Sox…not even close.
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- Kevin Eulbright - May 19, 2010 at 10:39 AM
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Who gives a fuck? You’re an asshole and your blog is worthless you mother fucker. There WAS NO indication of an injury because beckett was out there steaming that he let in all the runs and wanted to be pulled which then iced CC for the remainder of the game. You suck at blogging so why don’t you go get some more dick up your ass
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- Kris - May 19, 2010 at 10:55 AM
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You stay classy, New York.
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- Chuck - May 19, 2010 at 10:55 AM
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Thought the Yanks were right to protest. Didn’t look to me like he even wanted to come out of the game, and all this RedSox training staff giving every ache and pain its own nominal condition, that’s how my back hurts becomes “back spasms” and normal 100-pitch wear and tear becomes “stop the game right now because he can’t continue” when he probably could have faced the next batter so that his reliever would have gotten time to get stretched. Give me a break Boston acts like these guys are made of glass. Follow the rules, don’t abuse them to avoid having your pitcher face one more dangerous bat. BTW I’m no Yankees fan, I’m just sayin…
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- InnocentBystander - May 19, 2010 at 11:06 AM
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Thanks for the update Craig. This now makes it clear to me that we’re supposed to follow the unwritten rules and disregard the authentic ones.
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- Steve A - May 19, 2010 at 11:14 AM
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A double switch is nullified if the manager doesn’t let the home plate umpire know about it first. How is this lack of following protocol any different? Just because a protest isn’t going to get upheld doesn’t mean one shouldn’t be filed.
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- Jonny5 - May 19, 2010 at 11:19 AM
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You should just change the title to “Waaaaaaa we lost, so now we’ll cry about an extended pitching warmup”. I swear some teams this year with all their whining is making me ill. Just play ball, and shut up. Thank you very much. No more, “He crossed my mound! waaaa waaa”, “He did a fist pump, Waaa waaaaa”, “He said aww shit when he popped up, waa waaa”, He replayed me running in slow motion to chariots of fire (lmao), waaa waaaaaa”. What is this Grammar school recess? Are you men or kids? Suck it up and move on!
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- YANKEES1996 - May 19, 2010 at 11:22 AM
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So Moses in your view it was obvious that Beckett was struggling with back problems last night because that is what he was on the disabled list for?, excuse me but that is stupid reasoning. He didn’t seem to be stuggling all that badly to me, and I agree with the other post above he did not appear to even want to come out of the game, and he did not appear to be in pain or discomfort walking off the field. So, if a pitcher that has had Tommy John surgery lets say 18 months previously and he has come off the DL and he is pitching in a game and becomes ineffective in the latter innings Girardi and other managers should just simply surmise that he has re-injured himself and needs to be replaced, and of course all this can be done without notifying the umpire that the guy is hurt. If the training staff, doctors, manager and most of all Beckett himself did not think his back was 100 percent he should not have been taken off the DL, that seems pretty simple to me. Beckett was pitching and was beginning to get knocked around and only after Canos’ at bat does the alleged back problem become an issue, just seems a little to convienent, doesn’t it?
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- Toco - May 19, 2010 at 11:38 AM
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I think Girardi has to file the protest given the nature of the protest (ie., failure by the opposing team to follow a technical rule and the failure of the umpires to enforce that rule). It seems to me that he and his coaching staff would be negligent if they failed to do so, even if it ultimately doesn’t succeed.
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- bullet - May 19, 2010 at 11:49 AM
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Fuck Beckett…he’s a whining bitch….and Pedroia (a tom cruise look alike motherfucker)
Giradi stepped in shit getting the greatest job in the world….hopefully he can stay out of the way of another championship.
I hate the way Giradi manages…but the players seem to respect him which obviously is more important that my opinion about his fucking little league managing skills….Fuck the Red Sox and everything they think they stand for….27 going on 28 MOTHERFUCKERS!
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- Nomar - May 19, 2010 at 12:07 PM
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So, where in the world is this “Yankees own Beckett” garbage coming from? His career record against the Spankees is 9-6. That’s nine wins, six losses. And then there’s that rather insignificant complete game effort against them in the 2003 World Series, in which he was the MVP.
As usual, this Spankee has no clue what he’s talking about. God, I hate Yankees fans.
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- Richard Dansky - May 19, 2010 at 12:08 PM
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Wow. Who let the cast of Jersey Shore in here?
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- Charles Gates - May 19, 2010 at 12:08 PM
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I don’t think this is a ‘real’ protest, but perhaps a little bit of gamesmanship on Girardi’s part. What it gains him, I’m not so sure, but I enjoy the ‘Even if it doesn’t get me anything to fight, I’m not gonna let you get away with it’ spirit.
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- MK - May 19, 2010 at 12:29 PM
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Someone insulting Yankee fans is using wins & losses to measure a pitcher’s performance?
Keep up the brilliant analysis and punnery, genius.
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- Church of the Perpetually Outraged - May 19, 2010 at 12:30 PM
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While I think “own” is a bit much, he has fared worse against the Yanks than any other team. Checking out his splits at b-ref.com and filtering out any team he has(d) 10 or less GS against:
Yanks are #1 in H/9
Yanks are #2 in BB/9 (Tor #1)
Yanks are #1 in K/9
Yanks are #3 in IP/GS (Tor #1, Philly #2)
Yanks are #2 in ERA (Tor huge lead, almost 1.5 runs more per 9)
That doesn’t include the ’03 games in the postseason; however, those games were over 6 years ago and the teams are entirely different. So he “struggles” against the Yanks, but honestly who doesn’t?
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- STP - May 19, 2010 at 1:19 PM
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Again, this is just a boring and imbecilic stance from Star777. “You don’t expect them to win, and we know the Yankees will”. First of all, if you “know” the Yankees will win, then you were dead wrong for nine of the last ten years. Second of all, Red Sox fans no longer “expect” the Red Sox to lose. That has gone by the wayside after 2004. We usually expect our teams to win and do very well. For me, after looking closely at this offseason, I wasn’t impressed with the approach and I felt like that would cost us. I don’t think that has anything to do with me being a Red Sox fan… I’m being a realist. There are plenty of other Red Sox fans, for what its worth, that ate the company bagels, I was just in the vocal minority among my peers that said it wasn’t good enough. I don’t deny that the Yankees are the historical best team in baseball, nor do I deny that they are likely the best (or in the top two/three) this particular season. I ALSO don’t think its nearly as big of an accomplishment with an essentially unlimited payroll, and I think its stupid and outdated to bring up Red Sox fans past insecurities as being currently valid. We replaced the Bay/Manny/Ortiz/Lowell years with Scutaro/Cameron/Hermida/Beltre. Why can’t it just be smart baseball sense to not like that?
