Both benches cleared during the second inning of a spring training game between the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, leading to the ejections of two players and two coaches. The benches cleared after New York's Shelley Duncan slid into Rays second baseman Akinori Iwamura with spikes raised after hitting a hard grounder off third baseman Evan Longoria's glove and trying to advance to second base on the play. Also, New York left-hander Heath Phillips was ejected in the first inning after one of his pitches appeared to graze Longoria's shirt. The Rays already had two runs and three hits in the inning.
Ruling: Welcome to Joe Girardi's Yankee "Thug" baseball. By complaining about a hard collision at home plate a few days prior, and by allowing his team to avenge that hard collision, Girardi has succeeded in giving the Yankees a reputation for being goons. They are clearly taking on the personality of their manager...and that may not be a good thing. Girardi was clearly off base for complaining about the collision at home plate. Yes, it was unfortunate that rookie catcher Francisco Cervelli broke his wrist in the collision, but it was clearly a case of a young player, Elliot Johnson of the Rays, trying to make the team and make an impression for being a hard nosed player... something that Girardi himself was known as. But to have their pitcher hit a young top prospect in Longoria, and then having one of his players, Shelly Duncan, come in at 2B with spikes high, is borderline disgraceful. Duncan was clearly out by more than 10 feet, making it an obvious spikes-high-toward-the-crotch slide.
It is inevitable that Girardi will be compared to Joe Torre the entire season, but with that said, there's no way a Joe Torre team would have been allowed to carry out such retribution...especially when the Rays were not in the wrong. Girardi should know better, and had better tone down his act real quick.

Speaking of the Yankees, many have criticized MLB for allowing the Yankees to activate Billy Crystal for a game. Come on folks...relax. It's an exhibition game that means little. Crystal has been Mr. Yankee, has done much for the organization, and frankly, deserved this honor long ago. I don't think there's any sports fan who isn't curious to find out how Crystal performed...or being able to view the highlights on SportsCenter. If you can't have fun and enjoy a Spring Training game with some intrigue, then when can you enjoy a game? It's an exhibition game....let the Yankees and Billy Crystal exhibit.

Importance of Official Scoring: Often overlooked at the minor league level, and perhaps more so in Spring Training are the official scorers. If they go unnoticed, they're doing their job correctly. However, what is often overlooked is how their calls can affect a roster and a career. A potential hit that is ruled an error can affect a players batting average by 60 points or more during Spring Training. A ball that is hit and ruled an error will not only hurt the batter, but it also improves the pitcher's Spring ERA. Conversely, a hard hit ball that is ruled a hit as opposed to an error, can add more than a full run to a pitchers Spring ERA. And in Spring Training, where some pitchers get no more than six or seven innings to prove themselves before being sent down to the minors, a full run added to their ERA can, and in fact, does make the difference between the majors and minors.
Let's look at player who only gets 20 at-bats before the first Spring cuts. If he gets 6 hits in 20 AB, his Spring average is .300. That is usually enough to get a second look. However, if one of his hits is scored an error, though it appeared to be a hit, his batting average goes from a .300 to .250....and often times, a .250 batting average can result in a demotion to the minors. That is how important Spring Training official scorers are to players, especially during the Spring.
The same theory applies to Official Scorers at the minor league level. A hitter who has 100AB may have 30 hits for a .300 average. Take away 2 hits, and score them errors, and the player is batting .280. Let's look at a pitcher who has pitched 48 innings and given up 12 runs. His ERA would be 2.25, which is pretty outstanding. Now, what if 3 unearned runs that he may have allowed, were considered hits as opposed to errors. Thus he'd have given up 15 runs. His ERA jumps to 2.81. That is a substantial jump.
Being an official scorer is a no-win situation. For every player you make happy with a ruling, you make another one angry. It's a fact of life that will never be changed...or perfected. Next time you hear of a player (at the major league level) complaining about a scorer's ruling, realize that it could affect his next contract. And ask yourself why in the world would anyone want to be an official scorer?



Court Adjourned!