Originally posted by Bollocks:Ok, our job is done here.
I truly apologize, I honestly do.
I now know how you all feel when smackie, Barcelona and myself discuss football on the board.
Indians 22, Yankees 0
bump
i dont want anyone to forget what happpened
i dont want anyone to forget what happpened
The Yankees haven't lost since. Must have been a wakeup call. Maybe if they had only lost 5-4, they'd still be losing.
This is really weird, The Yankees in the last two games have scored 14 runs. That means in the one win Cleveland scored 22 runs and got ONE win out of it. The Yankees score a combined 14 runs in two games and got TWO wins. This really confuses me (sarcasm)
Once again, A-Rod was right when he said it was ONLY one loss.
Once again, A-Rod was right when he said it was ONLY one loss.
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:I am sorry Rob, you ARE right! Please excuse my lack of knowledge on this whole "loss" thing. Boston hasnt lost in so long, i kinda forget
This is really weird, The Yankees in the last two games have scored 14 runs. That means in the one win Cleveland scored 22 runs and got ONE win out of it. The Yankees score a combined 14 runs in two games and got TWO wins. This really confuses me (sarcasm)
Once again, A-Rod was right when he said it was ONLY one loss.
so, a loss is when you score less runs than the opponent?
maybe i should ask an Angels fan….
Originally posted by sonickteam2:That was a HUGE Boston sweep.
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:I am sorry Rob, you ARE right! Please excuse my lack of knowledge on this whole "loss" thing. Boston hasnt lost in so long, i kinda forget
This is really weird, The Yankees in the last two games have scored 14 runs. That means in the one win Cleveland scored 22 runs and got ONE win out of it. The Yankees score a combined 14 runs in two games and got TWO wins. This really confuses me (sarcasm)
Once again, A-Rod was right when he said it was ONLY one loss.
so, a loss is when you score less runs than the opponent?
maybe i should ask an Angels fan….
And I'm sure you might get a reaction from an Angels fan, but I havent heard one in awhile. ;)
does it really matter how many games the red sox win? we all know what the eventual outcome will be.
Originally posted by hitman:choke!!!
does it really matter how many games the red sox win? we all know what the eventual outcome will be.
OK, how much of a douchebag is Kevin Brown? At least he broke his non-pitching hand!
I may be a Yankees fan, but that doesn't mean they can't be ammunition for my ridicule!
I may be a Yankees fan, but that doesn't mean they can't be ammunition for my ridicule!
Originally posted by hitman:Yes, that was very foolish. at this point in time, while I can NEVER say that the red sox are going to win it all, the Yankees dont really stand a chance to win the series this year.
OK, how much of a douchebag is Kevin Brown? At least he broke his non-pitching hand!
I may be a Yankees fan, but that doesn't mean they can't be ammunition for my ridicule!
Originally posted by sonickteam2:Thats what everyone said about the Marlins last year.
the Yankees dont really stand a chance to win the series this year. [/QB]
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:i never said that.
Originally posted by sonickteam2:Thats what everyone said about the Marlins last year. [/QB]
the Yankees dont really stand a chance to win the series this year.
Here's a good reason to hate the Yankees. This is the most chicken shit move I've seen from this franchise. It worse then all the times they "couldn't get the field cleaned up after the rains" when they were mysteriously losing before 5 innings, but always could when they had the lead.
YANKEES ASK FOR A FORFEIT
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
If Yankees were in Devil Rays' shoes …
——————————————————————————–
ESPN.com news services
NEW YORK – The Yankees' push Monday for a forfeit victory over the Devil Rays has landed them squarely in the eye of Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella.
Because of travel problems due to Hurricane Frances, the Devil Rays arrived three hours late for the rescheduled 3 p.m. ET opener of a doubleheader Monday at Yankee Stadium. Tampa Bay lost the game that was played 7-4. Afterward, Piniella was angry that the Yankees asked the commissioner's office to declare the other game a forfeit victory for them.
Commissioner Bud Selig has no intention of ordering a forfeit.
"If it'd been reversed, and that hurricane would have been here in the New York area as opposed to the Tampa area, the Yankees should have stayed at home and forgotten about the ballgame in Tampa. Period," Piniella told reporters.
"Let me tell you this: I think when you look at baseball, it's important," Piniella continued. "Your family is doubly important or triply important and when a hurricane is beating down on the Florida coast, 160, 70, 80 miles from your hometown, I think you take care of your family first and you worry about the ballgame second.
"I know the Yankees are in a pennant race, but I also know that our kids are young and have a lot of young kids at home. There was flooding, there are a lot of things that occurred over a two-day period in Florida, and I think everybody was more comfortable being with their family than being in New York sitting in a hotel waiting to play a baseball game."
Devil Rays designated hitter Aubrey Huff didn't make the trip; his house was so flooded, according to one report, that he couldn't get out of it despite offers from police to escort him to the airport so he could join his teammates.
General manager Chuck LaMar said the team never intended to leave for New York until Sunday night or Monday. The team endured travel delays Monday of up to 10 hours before landing in New York.
"We decided, and we made the right decision, we'll stick by that decision, to stay with our families," he said. "We wanted to stay in the Tampa Bay area, wait out the storm with our families."
The Yankees reported to Yankee Stadium at noon for the doubleheader. Tampa Bay players arrived for the 7:05 p.m. start at 6:05, suited up, and lost their eighth straight.
Before the game, Yankees president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman held a news conference on the field, explaining why they wanted a forfeit. Baseball rules say a forfeit may be called if a team isn't ready within five minutes of umpires calling "play" unless the delay is "unavoidable."
"The rule states that if your team is here and ready to play, and the other team isn't here and not ready to play, there should be a forfeit, and we believe there should be a forfeit," Levine said.
The teams also are scheduled to play night games Wednesday and Thursday. Levine said that if the forfeit request was denied, it should be rescheduled to be played on Oct. 4, the day after the regular season, if it's needed to decide a postseason race. He also said that the Yankees may refuse to reschedule the game for this week, even if ordered to.
"Given the stage of the season we are in, and the exciting pennant races, it is critical that we do everything to decide the championship on the field," Selig said in a statement.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
YANKEES ASK FOR A FORFEIT
Tuesday, September 7, 2004
If Yankees were in Devil Rays' shoes …
——————————————————————————–
ESPN.com news services
NEW YORK – The Yankees' push Monday for a forfeit victory over the Devil Rays has landed them squarely in the eye of Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella.
Because of travel problems due to Hurricane Frances, the Devil Rays arrived three hours late for the rescheduled 3 p.m. ET opener of a doubleheader Monday at Yankee Stadium. Tampa Bay lost the game that was played 7-4. Afterward, Piniella was angry that the Yankees asked the commissioner's office to declare the other game a forfeit victory for them.
Commissioner Bud Selig has no intention of ordering a forfeit.
"If it'd been reversed, and that hurricane would have been here in the New York area as opposed to the Tampa area, the Yankees should have stayed at home and forgotten about the ballgame in Tampa. Period," Piniella told reporters.
"Let me tell you this: I think when you look at baseball, it's important," Piniella continued. "Your family is doubly important or triply important and when a hurricane is beating down on the Florida coast, 160, 70, 80 miles from your hometown, I think you take care of your family first and you worry about the ballgame second.
"I know the Yankees are in a pennant race, but I also know that our kids are young and have a lot of young kids at home. There was flooding, there are a lot of things that occurred over a two-day period in Florida, and I think everybody was more comfortable being with their family than being in New York sitting in a hotel waiting to play a baseball game."
Devil Rays designated hitter Aubrey Huff didn't make the trip; his house was so flooded, according to one report, that he couldn't get out of it despite offers from police to escort him to the airport so he could join his teammates.
General manager Chuck LaMar said the team never intended to leave for New York until Sunday night or Monday. The team endured travel delays Monday of up to 10 hours before landing in New York.
"We decided, and we made the right decision, we'll stick by that decision, to stay with our families," he said. "We wanted to stay in the Tampa Bay area, wait out the storm with our families."
The Yankees reported to Yankee Stadium at noon for the doubleheader. Tampa Bay players arrived for the 7:05 p.m. start at 6:05, suited up, and lost their eighth straight.
Before the game, Yankees president Randy Levine and general manager Brian Cashman held a news conference on the field, explaining why they wanted a forfeit. Baseball rules say a forfeit may be called if a team isn't ready within five minutes of umpires calling "play" unless the delay is "unavoidable."
"The rule states that if your team is here and ready to play, and the other team isn't here and not ready to play, there should be a forfeit, and we believe there should be a forfeit," Levine said.
The teams also are scheduled to play night games Wednesday and Thursday. Levine said that if the forfeit request was denied, it should be rescheduled to be played on Oct. 4, the day after the regular season, if it's needed to decide a postseason race. He also said that the Yankees may refuse to reschedule the game for this week, even if ordered to.
"Given the stage of the season we are in, and the exciting pennant races, it is critical that we do everything to decide the championship on the field," Selig said in a statement.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
Originally posted by sonickteam2:Yeah, but even when you count them out, they turn around and do something smart. It is when you think they are doing too well, that they fuck it up. So I can't count them out yet.
Originally posted by hitman:Yes, that was very foolish. at this point in time, while I can NEVER say that the red sox are going to win it all, the Yankees dont really stand a chance to win the series this year.
OK, how much of a douchebag is Kevin Brown? At least he broke his non-pitching hand!
I may be a Yankees fan, but that doesn't mean they can't be ammunition for my ridicule!
I have mixed feelings on the Devil Rays' situation. I am human, and feel it is harsh considering the circumstances. But the flip side that I'm hearing off of Around the Horn, and PTI today on ESPN, is that the D-Rays owner didn't want to front a couple of extra bucks for an earlier charter flight Monday morning. Then MLB told the D-Rays to fly out Sat. (and the team told MLB they were going to do that) but never did, although they were told they could take their families with them. This is according to ESPN today on TV. But there is the other pissing and moaning side of it that is awfully inmature. Toss up.
Originally posted by hitman:only a Yankees fan could come to that conclusion. :)
Toss up.
Originally posted by sonickteam2:Being a Red Sox fan all your life makes you want to do this. :D
Toss up.
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:stop misquoting me. you bastard son of a Red Sox fan. ;)
Originally posted by sonickteam2:Being a Red Sox fan all your life makes you want to do this. :D
Toss up.
Originally posted by sonickteam2:Actually my parents hate the Red Sox just as bad as my brother and I. I will say though my bro is the biggest Patriots fan, always has been, even during the Steve Grogan days.
Originally posted by Rob_Gee:stop misquoting me. you bastard son of a Red Sox fan. ;)
Originally posted by sonickteam2:Being a Red Sox fan all your life makes you want to do this. :D
Toss up.
For you idiots that thought it was just the Yankees fault:
Selig and Co. blew it
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
It's always fashionable to blame the Yankees for just about anything and just about everything these days. Traffic. Inflation. Bad haircuts. Whatever.
So why not the weather?
Why not a hurricane?
Why not a headline that looked something like this:
HURRICANE FRANCES RAVAGES FLORIDA. STEINBRENNER BLAMED.
OK, it never quite came to that this week. But it did come to this:
DEVIL RAYS DELAYED BY HURRICANE. YANKEES DEMAND FORFEIT.
If you weren't paying attention, that looked like the clear seven-word summation of what happened Monday at Yankee Stadium, when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays failed to show up on time for a doubleheader without a valid note from their mothers.
But of course, it's more complicated than that. And as best we can tell, after hearing all sides in this fiasco, it isn't the Yankees who deserve to take the heat on this. Or the Devil Rays.
It's the poobahs at Major League Baseball, who must have been the only people on the planet not watching the Weather Channel over the weekend.
Does anybody out there really believe the Yankees are so desperate to hold onto their lead over the rampaging Red Sox that they tried to squeeze a forfeit out of a team caught in a hurricane?
Come on, friends. George Steinbrenner may believe that the goal in life is to go 162-0 and sweep the World Series by a score of 57-1. But he isn't that inhumane.
All the Yankees were really doing, in requesting that forfeit ruling Monday, was asking the commissioner's office, in that diplomatic way of theirs: Why the heck were we forced to wait around all day for a team that had no more chance of arriving in New York by 3 p.m. than it did of swimming from Tampa Bay to the Bronx?
Why were they there? Not because they wanted to be. They were there because MLB's COO, Bob DuPuy, assured them repeatedly all weekend that the Devil Rays would show up in plenty of time to play.
As early as Friday, Yankees president Randy Levine told ESPN.com, the Yankees called the commissioner's office and said: "There's a hurricane coming. What do you want us to do (about Monday's doubleheader)?"
"If they had just told us Friday, 'The Devil Rays are not coming,' all of this would have been avoided," Levine said.
But that isn't what the Yankees were told. They were told by DuPuy on Friday they should prepare to play, Levine said. They were told the same thing on Saturday. They were told again on Sunday. They were reassured yet again Sunday night, despite forecasts that showed the storm had slowed in the Tampa Bay area.
So all the Yankees did was what they were told. They prepared to play. They showed up to play.
And when game time rolled around (a couple of different game times, in fact) and there was nobody to play, they got slightly annoyed. Can't blame them.
There should have been a simple announcement Sunday, if not earlier: "The health and safety of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and their families is more important to us than any Labor Day doubleheader. Therefore, we're postponing both games." How complicated is that, huh?
But what were they doing there? Why were they told to play? Why did MLB even think it was possible to play? That still isn't clear.
DuPuy didn't return two calls for comment. But MLB spokesman Rich Levin says baseball was assured by the Devil Rays "that they would be there on time." Which is interesting, since the Rays themselves say they never had any intention of leaving until the storm had passed and they knew their homes and families were safe.
"We'd do it again tomorrow," said Rick Vaughn, the Devil Rays' vice president of public relations. "There's no way we wanted to come up during that storm."
Even the Yankees admit that Devil Rays GM Chuck LaMar talked to Yankees GM Brian Cashman as early as Friday and told them just that. They even relayed that message to MLB.
But Levine says the Yankees were then told by the commissioner's office: "That's not true. We're telling them to get up there."
There have been intimations that it was Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli who told DuPuy his team would show up Monday right on time, ostensibly because it planned to leave Sunday.
But Vaughn says that while there was some preliminary talk about trying to fly out Sunday night, the forecast continued to worsen. So "by Friday night, when we left the ballpark," Vaughn said, "our traveling secretary told me, 'We'll leave Monday morning, unless you hear (otherwise) from me.' "
The commissioner's office, however, would not confirm that Naimoli had sent DuPuy a different message – or, in fact, that he had told them anything about anything.
"We're not going to talk about what conversations we had with the Devil Rays," Levin said. "We were led to believe the Devil Rays could make it there in time for the game. As far as who said what to whom, we're not going to get into it."
The other bizarre aspect of this story is the Yankees' suggestion that the Devil Rays took their time getting out of Tampa on Monday, when they could have flown out first thing in the morning.
"Let me tell you about our day," Vaughn replied. "We got to the park at 7:30 in the morning, because the bus was supposed to leave at 8. And we were ready to go. But the airport in Sarasota was closed.
"So then we tried to fly out of Fort Myers. But there were tornado warnings along I-75. And Chuck said, 'I'm not going to jeopardize these players' safety by trying to drive 2½ hours (to Fort Myers) in this weather.'
"Finally, around 11:30, we heard that the Tampa airport would be open around noon. … But the bridge was flooded, and they only had one lane open, and it took us an hour just to get across the bridge. So there was no way we could leave Tampa until 3 o'clock.
"We left Tampa at 3 and played a game – in New York – at 7." Vaughn said. "I never heard of anybody doing that. But we did it. We walked in, put our uniforms on, went out, stretched and started the game."
The Yankees, on the other hand, say they were told at one point that the Devil Rays would leave Saturday, before the storm even hit – then were told Monday that the Tampa airport was open all morning.
With all these different stories flying around, of course, who knows what any of us should believe. So Levine said the Yankees didn't demand they be handed this win by forfeit. All the Yankees asked MLB to do, he said, was "investigate."
"What we said to Major League Baseball was, 'Do an investigation,' " Levine said. "If you determine that Tampa Bay was supposed to leave and it didn't have a valid reason for not leaving and not showing up, then the rules say there should be a forfeit."
But MLB's "investigation" didn't exactly last as long as the Iran-Contragate hearings. Before Monday night's game was even over, Bud Selig had issued a statement saying MLB believed in determining the outcome of its games by playing them, not forfeiting them. And by Tuesday afternoon, MLB had rescheduled the postponed game as part of a Wednesday doubleheader.
The Yankees had asked for that game to be rescheduled for after the season and only played if necessary. But MLB rejected that argument, too.
"We try to play all our games," Levin said, speaking for Selig. "Things like hurricanes do happen. When they happen, you have to make an adjustment. And we made an adjustment."
That, however, isn't the Yankees' beef. They understand there was a hurricane. They understand that created issues for a lot of people. They understand why the Devil Rays didn't want to leave until the storm had headed elsewhere.
"We're not objecting to any of that," said the Yankees' president. "What we're objecting to is: That's not what (MLB) told us. … If (the Rays) couldn't get there – or baseball was telling them they didn't have to get there – why didn't (MLB) just tell us that? If they'd come to us Friday, Saturday or Sunday and said, 'This is not going to happen,' why would we have opened the gates?"
Uh, good question. And one that could have been easily answered, too, had anyone from the commissioner's office just taken a good look at the Doppler, considered all the human issues involved and thought this through.
There should have been a simple announcement from Selig or DuPuy on Sunday, if not earlier: "The health and safety of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and their families is more important to us than any Labor Day doubleheader. Therefore, we're postponing both games and we're telling the Devil Rays to wait out this storm. We'll stay in constant communication with all sides. And when it's safe for them to leave for New York, we'll have a further announcement on rescheduling these games."
How complicated is that, huh? But instead, the Devil Rays probably will be fined and/or disciplined. Lucky them.
And all that forfeit hoopla has probably led most of the continent to think the Yankees' official hurricane policy was something to the effect of: "We deserve that forfeit. And oh by the way, we don't care if your power stays out till November."
Ridiculous.
But when in doubt, blame the Yankees. It's been a can't-go-wrong formula for 80 years. No reason to abandon it now.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
Selig and Co. blew it
By Jayson Stark
ESPN.com
It's always fashionable to blame the Yankees for just about anything and just about everything these days. Traffic. Inflation. Bad haircuts. Whatever.
So why not the weather?
Why not a hurricane?
Why not a headline that looked something like this:
HURRICANE FRANCES RAVAGES FLORIDA. STEINBRENNER BLAMED.
OK, it never quite came to that this week. But it did come to this:
DEVIL RAYS DELAYED BY HURRICANE. YANKEES DEMAND FORFEIT.
If you weren't paying attention, that looked like the clear seven-word summation of what happened Monday at Yankee Stadium, when the Tampa Bay Devil Rays failed to show up on time for a doubleheader without a valid note from their mothers.
But of course, it's more complicated than that. And as best we can tell, after hearing all sides in this fiasco, it isn't the Yankees who deserve to take the heat on this. Or the Devil Rays.
It's the poobahs at Major League Baseball, who must have been the only people on the planet not watching the Weather Channel over the weekend.
Does anybody out there really believe the Yankees are so desperate to hold onto their lead over the rampaging Red Sox that they tried to squeeze a forfeit out of a team caught in a hurricane?
Come on, friends. George Steinbrenner may believe that the goal in life is to go 162-0 and sweep the World Series by a score of 57-1. But he isn't that inhumane.
All the Yankees were really doing, in requesting that forfeit ruling Monday, was asking the commissioner's office, in that diplomatic way of theirs: Why the heck were we forced to wait around all day for a team that had no more chance of arriving in New York by 3 p.m. than it did of swimming from Tampa Bay to the Bronx?
Why were they there? Not because they wanted to be. They were there because MLB's COO, Bob DuPuy, assured them repeatedly all weekend that the Devil Rays would show up in plenty of time to play.
As early as Friday, Yankees president Randy Levine told ESPN.com, the Yankees called the commissioner's office and said: "There's a hurricane coming. What do you want us to do (about Monday's doubleheader)?"
"If they had just told us Friday, 'The Devil Rays are not coming,' all of this would have been avoided," Levine said.
But that isn't what the Yankees were told. They were told by DuPuy on Friday they should prepare to play, Levine said. They were told the same thing on Saturday. They were told again on Sunday. They were reassured yet again Sunday night, despite forecasts that showed the storm had slowed in the Tampa Bay area.
So all the Yankees did was what they were told. They prepared to play. They showed up to play.
And when game time rolled around (a couple of different game times, in fact) and there was nobody to play, they got slightly annoyed. Can't blame them.
There should have been a simple announcement Sunday, if not earlier: "The health and safety of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and their families is more important to us than any Labor Day doubleheader. Therefore, we're postponing both games." How complicated is that, huh?
But what were they doing there? Why were they told to play? Why did MLB even think it was possible to play? That still isn't clear.
DuPuy didn't return two calls for comment. But MLB spokesman Rich Levin says baseball was assured by the Devil Rays "that they would be there on time." Which is interesting, since the Rays themselves say they never had any intention of leaving until the storm had passed and they knew their homes and families were safe.
"We'd do it again tomorrow," said Rick Vaughn, the Devil Rays' vice president of public relations. "There's no way we wanted to come up during that storm."
Even the Yankees admit that Devil Rays GM Chuck LaMar talked to Yankees GM Brian Cashman as early as Friday and told them just that. They even relayed that message to MLB.
But Levine says the Yankees were then told by the commissioner's office: "That's not true. We're telling them to get up there."
There have been intimations that it was Devil Rays owner Vince Naimoli who told DuPuy his team would show up Monday right on time, ostensibly because it planned to leave Sunday.
But Vaughn says that while there was some preliminary talk about trying to fly out Sunday night, the forecast continued to worsen. So "by Friday night, when we left the ballpark," Vaughn said, "our traveling secretary told me, 'We'll leave Monday morning, unless you hear (otherwise) from me.' "
The commissioner's office, however, would not confirm that Naimoli had sent DuPuy a different message – or, in fact, that he had told them anything about anything.
"We're not going to talk about what conversations we had with the Devil Rays," Levin said. "We were led to believe the Devil Rays could make it there in time for the game. As far as who said what to whom, we're not going to get into it."
The other bizarre aspect of this story is the Yankees' suggestion that the Devil Rays took their time getting out of Tampa on Monday, when they could have flown out first thing in the morning.
"Let me tell you about our day," Vaughn replied. "We got to the park at 7:30 in the morning, because the bus was supposed to leave at 8. And we were ready to go. But the airport in Sarasota was closed.
"So then we tried to fly out of Fort Myers. But there were tornado warnings along I-75. And Chuck said, 'I'm not going to jeopardize these players' safety by trying to drive 2½ hours (to Fort Myers) in this weather.'
"Finally, around 11:30, we heard that the Tampa airport would be open around noon. … But the bridge was flooded, and they only had one lane open, and it took us an hour just to get across the bridge. So there was no way we could leave Tampa until 3 o'clock.
"We left Tampa at 3 and played a game – in New York – at 7." Vaughn said. "I never heard of anybody doing that. But we did it. We walked in, put our uniforms on, went out, stretched and started the game."
The Yankees, on the other hand, say they were told at one point that the Devil Rays would leave Saturday, before the storm even hit – then were told Monday that the Tampa airport was open all morning.
With all these different stories flying around, of course, who knows what any of us should believe. So Levine said the Yankees didn't demand they be handed this win by forfeit. All the Yankees asked MLB to do, he said, was "investigate."
"What we said to Major League Baseball was, 'Do an investigation,' " Levine said. "If you determine that Tampa Bay was supposed to leave and it didn't have a valid reason for not leaving and not showing up, then the rules say there should be a forfeit."
But MLB's "investigation" didn't exactly last as long as the Iran-Contragate hearings. Before Monday night's game was even over, Bud Selig had issued a statement saying MLB believed in determining the outcome of its games by playing them, not forfeiting them. And by Tuesday afternoon, MLB had rescheduled the postponed game as part of a Wednesday doubleheader.
The Yankees had asked for that game to be rescheduled for after the season and only played if necessary. But MLB rejected that argument, too.
"We try to play all our games," Levin said, speaking for Selig. "Things like hurricanes do happen. When they happen, you have to make an adjustment. And we made an adjustment."
That, however, isn't the Yankees' beef. They understand there was a hurricane. They understand that created issues for a lot of people. They understand why the Devil Rays didn't want to leave until the storm had headed elsewhere.
"We're not objecting to any of that," said the Yankees' president. "What we're objecting to is: That's not what (MLB) told us. … If (the Rays) couldn't get there – or baseball was telling them they didn't have to get there – why didn't (MLB) just tell us that? If they'd come to us Friday, Saturday or Sunday and said, 'This is not going to happen,' why would we have opened the gates?"
Uh, good question. And one that could have been easily answered, too, had anyone from the commissioner's office just taken a good look at the Doppler, considered all the human issues involved and thought this through.
There should have been a simple announcement from Selig or DuPuy on Sunday, if not earlier: "The health and safety of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and their families is more important to us than any Labor Day doubleheader. Therefore, we're postponing both games and we're telling the Devil Rays to wait out this storm. We'll stay in constant communication with all sides. And when it's safe for them to leave for New York, we'll have a further announcement on rescheduling these games."
How complicated is that, huh? But instead, the Devil Rays probably will be fined and/or disciplined. Lucky them.
And all that forfeit hoopla has probably led most of the continent to think the Yankees' official hurricane policy was something to the effect of: "We deserve that forfeit. And oh by the way, we don't care if your power stays out till November."
Ridiculous.
But when in doubt, blame the Yankees. It's been a can't-go-wrong formula for 80 years. No reason to abandon it now.
Jayson Stark is a senior writer for ESPN.com.
I don't know how you can like the Yankees. Steinbrenner doesn't even allow facial hair, except for mustaches. How un-rock and roll is that?
At least the Red Sox look like dirtbags.
At least the Red Sox look like dirtbags.