Wake up, National League: Hank Steinbrenner is talking to you:
“My only message is simple. The National League needs to join the 21st century,” Steinbrenner said in Tampa, Fla. “They need to grow up and join the 21st century.
“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.”
You hear that, National League? Noted baseball historian and champion of the game Hank Steinbrenner has given you a stern talking to and you best heed his words. The Yankees suffered an injury to one of their players while he was running the bases in an interleague game - stop playing games in the National League this instant until this obvious problem is fixed to the satisfaction of Hank and the New York Yankees.
The one who needs to “grow up” here is Hank. It’s the behaviour of a child when something doesn’t go his or her way to throw a temper tantrum and hold others accountable for things that happened they don’t like. This kind of injury could have occured with Wang running to back up home plate, or going to cover first on a ball hit to the first baseman. But instead of acknowledging that it’s a freak injury that can happen at any time, Hank instead decides to whine about the rules. Cry me a river.
9 Comments until now
God forbid a baseball player gets hurt ACTUALLY PLAYING BASEBALL!!
I’ll make no pretenses: I don’t like the DH. I think if all the other players have to play both ways (offense and D), then pitchers should, too. This is the ONLY rule in ANY major sport which makes an exception for one player (vice others) playing both ways. [Save perhaps goalies serving penalties in hockey, but that's REAL minor] How players actually playing - yano - BASEBALL - is “a rule from the 1800s” is one of the dumbest things I’ve heard in sports this year.
I thought Hank was pretty funny - now I just think he’s a moron, and a buffoon.
I’m in the minority in that I actually like the DH, but these statements are dumb.
Wow, what a crybaby.
I’ll admin, I grew up watching the Orioles and never understood the NL. Now, having become a huge Nationals fan, I’ve also become a huge fan of the National League. It requires the manager to actually manage and make serious decisions in the game. It also requires the bench players to contribute on a regular, if not daily, basis requiring better roster management.
I had a radical idea recently that would let the two ideas merge. Make the lineup ten batters giving both a DH and a hitting pitcher. Then you keep the roster idea in the AL consistent, but add the complexity and managerial skill from the NL.
I am in the same camp as Cruiser - I love the DH in the American League and prefer that brand of baseball, although I don’t advocate the NL going to that rule. It’s just Hank’s whining I find fault with.
What a nutjob! This apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
One last comment on this. Bartolo Colon, of the Boston Red Sox, is going on the disabled list for hurting himself while swinging a bat during interleague play. Funny, I haven’t heard Lucchino, Henry, or Epstein cry about their pitchers having to bat as Hank saw fit to do…
Well Scott, while that’s true and noteworthy, it may be as much a result of the Sox actually having depth of pitching as it is the relative class and sanity of Sox ownership.
I doubt it has much to do with the pitching depth and more that it never occurred to the Sox brass to blame the rules for their loss.
Good point.
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