Monday, June 16, 2008

And the Moron of the Day award goes to...

Hank Steinbrenner!

For those of you who don't know, the Yankees' most consistent pitcher, Chien-Ming Wang hurt his foot running the bases during an interleague game at Houston. Here's what baby George had to say:

"Am I (mad) about it? Yes," Steinbrenner added. "I've got my pitchers running the bases, and one of them gets hurt. He's going to be out. I don't like that, and it's about time they address it. That was a rule from the 1800s."

Making a rare appearance on the bases at an NL park, Wang pulled up rounding third and hobbled home on Derek Jeter's single. Wang doubled over after scoring, pointed toward his right foot and was helped off the field.

"This is always a concern of American League teams when their pitchers have to run the bases and they're not used to doing it," Steinbrenner said. "It's not just us. It's everybody. It probably should be a concern for National League owners, general managers and managers when their pitchers run the bases. Pitchers have enough to do without having to do that."

Let's look at some prominent ML pitchers:
I have a sneaking suspicion that C.C. Sabathia and Livan Hernandez don't have much to do on off-days but eat Cheetos and watch SportsCenter. Let's also Google "MLB Pitchers with Weight Problems." Hmm...only 147,000 results.

Hank's not the sharpest tool in the shed. It doesn't take a genius to be able to round a base and keep running. Even a pitcher can do that. At least when guys like Shawn Hill hurt themselves on the basepaths, they're actually doing something (in Hill's case, doing stupid head-first slides). Wang can't do a very easy thing, something they teach you how to do in tee-ball. Hank is just mad because while money can buy talent, it can't buy the strategy needed to play NL-style baseball.

4 comments:

  1. Maybe Hank needs to hire Willie Randolph. I hear he needs a job.

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  2. I heard someone call Willie Randolph a "slut" today at Subway. Not sure how that fits in any situation, but whatever.

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  3. But I remember Willie when he played 2nd base--for the Yankees, right? We loved to go to the old Texas Stadium, home of the Rangers, which was about as big as WSHS' football venue. Well, maybe a tad bigger, but not much. The Rangers (at the time owned by our prez, Shrub, and others) were a hapless bunch. We used to root for the other team, because the famous players were on those teams, not ours. Saw Willie Randolph and tons of others. We'd sit down front, jeer the Rangers & cheer for the other side. Google Richie Zisk some time--that's how bad the Rangers were, back in the day!

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  4. Zisk wasn't so bad, 30 homers one year and 200+ for his career. Nothing to brag about in his years with Texas, though.

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