Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Joe Maddon, A Testament to Consistency

Here are Joe Maddon's thoughts on today's play by Shelley Duncan, courtesy of Pete Abe's blog (and by courtesy I mean I ripped it off and then linked to him):

“What we saw today is the definition of a dirty play. There’s no room for that in our game. It’s contemptible, it’s wrong, it’s borderline criminal. I can’t believe th[ey] did that.”

So breaking a guy's wrist is good ol' hard ball while sliding into second, cleats up, is borderline criminal? Interesting. In fairness, judging from the photo I saw, it pretty much looks like Duncan kicked Iwamura in the gonads, which is kind of messed up, sort of, I guess. Can't say I feel much sympathy for the Rays and their victimization at the hands of these borderline criminals. Maybe next time, Joe Maddon will talk to his guys about what is and isn't appropriate in exhibition games, especially against teams with Shelley Duncan on it.

It reminds me of that play Duncan did last season against Toronto. It was a game after the whole HA! incident, and I think they had already hit A-Rod. Anyway, Shelley's sliding into second as the ball is reaching the second baseman. Shelley kicks the ball and glove out of Scutaro's hand, then the rest of him knocks Scutaro over and sends him flying a good six or seven feet. It was hilarious. Welcome to Hard Ball, Rays. It's not so much fun when you're on the receiving end.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

It’s contemptible, it’s wrong, it’s borderline criminal. I can’t believe th[ey] did that.”

hahaha Maddon's robbing from the pages of Jackie Childs now???

"Its rude, lascivious, salacious... outrageous!!"

Anonymous said...

Meet the Law of Karma, Mr. Maddon.

Anonymous said...

well, in fairness, what happened to the yankees catcher was a legal baseball play, and I'm pretty sure that sliding into a base cleats up is illegal. Not to mention that he slid into Iwamura, or, their starting 3rd baseman. On the play that broke the catchers wrist, it's not like it was Carl Crawford barreling over Jorge Posada. It was just two guys fighting for a roster spot.

-Fred Trigger

Roberto E. Alejandro said...

That's true Fred, but it's also part of why you tell these kids what the boundaries are in an exhibition game, b/c there's no guarantee retaliation won't be against a regular, or worse yet, a star (I realize there aren't really any stars on Rays, save perhaps crawford).