July 16, 2008
Praise for Francona
Peter Abraham gives Terry Francona his due:
Meanwhile, whether Yankee fans want to hear it or not, Francona deserves your acclaim. He took Jeter and A-Rod out of the game in the middle of innings so they could get applause from the crowd. He used Mo exactly right. He was respectful as he could be to the tradition and history of the Yankees. He helped make the game what it was for the home team.
"I can't say enough about how great Terry has been through this whole thing," Girardi said.
Not that this would ever happen, of course, but when the Red Sox come to the Bronx in August, fans should let Francona know they appreciate what he did.
Terry is a class act. He's at the top with the best managers of people in the game.
Francona did a fine job, but I disagree on the Jeter / A-Rod elements. First of all, he took A-Rod out while he was in the field, which nobody noticed and he got no applause.
And I don't understand having Crede or Milton bradley in the game over Jeter or A-Rod is a good idea. Jeter and A-Rod got cheered when they came to bat, when they made plays, etc. Why did they need to take them out to have the crowd cheer? Wouldn't it have been a better celebration of their talent to have Jeter or A-Rod get a game winning hit in the ninth?
So, then what, RC? You don't start these Yankees players at home in the AS game? Or you start them and leave them in? Either way, never going to happen.
I was listening to the XM ESPN broadcast, and they said that ARod asked to be taken out early, anyway..
I disagree - they cheered Jeter and not ARod. Secondly you have 32 guys going to NYC instead of taking a 4 day break. If you play the starters the whole game you've brought a bunch of guys to sit on the bench. You need to balance the recognition of the starters with the committment of the reserves or you're going to get a lot of guys sitting out with sore hammy's and tired shoulders.
I think the lack of cheering for A-Rod was because the mid-inning substitution took the crowd by surprise.
I fully agree that Francona handled it very well. And J. D. Drew deserved mvp, too, dammit. (I thought the way the crowd cheered for the homer but changed to booing as Drew rounded the bases was very funny -- perfect ASGame crowd behavior!)
They weren't booing -- they were saying "DREWWWWW!"
Exactly James. We weren't expecting Alex to be taken out of the game so early. By the time we realized what was going on he was half-way to the dugout. People started to cheer then, but the applause didn't have time to grow.
We figured Jeter would be taken out the same way so we were ready for it.
Exactly James. We weren't expecting Alex to be taken out of the game so early. By the time we realized what was going on he was half-way to the dugout. People started to cheer then, but the applause didn't have time to grow.
We figured Jeter would be taken out the same way so we were ready for it.
Exactly James. We weren't expecting Alex to be taken out of the game so early. By the time we realized what was going on he was half-way to the dugout. People started to cheer then, but the applause didn't have time to grow.
We figured Jeter would be taken out the same way so we were ready for it.
Curious that A-Rod wasn't around to celebrate when his team won the game. He probably hustled off to Madonna's pad for some more Kabbalah studies.