We all know Sabathia came within four outs of a no-hitter yesterday, but perhaps we forgot how great the defense played behind him. From two diving stabs by Arod to Cano fielding a grounder off CC's hand to Tex going full-out for a line-drive, we saw great defense on display that helped the no-hitter remain intact.
- Speaking of Alex, he cracked his 1000th hit as a Yankee yesterday, tying him with Joe Gordon. Next on the list is Tino at 1039.
- MLB 'admonished' Joe West for his recent comments -
... one high level major league official told me: "This has created a problem of perception in regard to (West's) impartiality." The official said West would not be fined for his remarks, but has been admonished firmly...
And West, if he ever looked in the mirror, should realize he's about the last one to be criticizing players for delaying games. How many times over the years has he created needless delays by instigating brouhahas? A prime example of that was 1995 at Shea Stadium in between games of a doubleheader when West, who was the home plate umpire, started in on Mets' third-base coach Bobby Wine for being a couple of minutes late bringing out the lineup card. At first Wine thought he was kidding but then things got heated and suddenly West ejected him. That brought Mets manager Dallas Green out of the dugout whereupon West ejected him as well. What had originally been a two-minute delay became a 22-minute delay.
But despite West's outspoken and confrontational behavior over the years, MLB has seen fit to make him a crew chief. Had he not been a crew chief, no one would have had any reason to solicit his opinion the other day. In truth, West should not even be umpiring any more. His legs are shot and he can barely get around to make calls in the outfield. And this brings up another issue which baseball supposedly resolved last winter, but apparently didn't, and that's the business of getting over-the-hill, overweight and consistently low-graded umpires off the field by making them supervisors.
Say what you will about officials in other sports, at least those guys are in shape.
And talk about creating problems/delays when none exist -
Umpire Joe West wasn't just checking his watch during the Yankees' season-opening series -- he was checking CC Sabathia's shoes, too.
West forced two Yankees to change equipment in Boston, and questioned a third...
Sabathia confirmed that West made him change shoes in the second inning of the Opening Day game at Fenway Park. West told Sabathia he had to change his gray shoes because there wasn't any Yankees blue in them, though the gray shoes matched the gray Yankees road uniforms.
The next night West told Marcus Thames he had to take tape off his wrist because it didn't match the uniform. And West stopped reliever Joba Chamberlain on the way to the bullpen to check his shoes, but told Chamberlain his cleats were OK because there was blue in them.
- In his last exhibition game, Phil Hughes threw six innings of one-run ball against minor leaguers in extended spring training. His first start will come on Thursday against Anaheim. (FYI, highly-touted catching prospect Gary Sanchez had two hits off him. Impressive for a 17-year-old.)
- The Yankees could be fined for giving free tickets to Governor Paterson last fall.