More On Last Night’s Game

Lots of stuff went on last night, but one thing is obvious, the two teams don’t like each other.

John Schneider calling someone ‘fat boy’ is interesting. I fall firmly into the rocks and glass houses camp. But I am very curious about who he might have been talking to. I don’t think Aaron Boone could be called fat. Carlos Mendoza, Yankees’ bench coach, looks slim to me. Most of their coaching staff seems slim. Bullpen coach Mike Harkey might have a couple of extra pounds, but it didn’t look like John was yelling toward the bullpen.

Pete Walker got on Yankees’ third base coach Luis Rojas (who seems slim in photos) for not standing in the coach's box. No third-base coach stands in the box. And, of course, Luis Rivera wanders around the area, trying to get the right angle to watch baserunners and outfielders.

I’d imagine that Walker thinks it was likely the first base coach that Judge was looking at the night before. That works with the direction that Judge looked, and the first base coach has a good view of what Jay Jackson was doing. If anyone could see Jay tip his pitches, the first base coach would be the one.

Domingo German getting ejected for sticky stuff, after three innings is interesting. He was ok after the first and second innings? Or perhaps he didn’t think they would check him after the third inning. From Kaitlyn McGrath’s game story in the Atlantic:

After the game, home-plate umpire James Hoye said Germán’s hand was “extremely shiny and extremely sticky. It was the stickiest hand I’ve ever felt.”

The umpires made it clear they didn’t think it was just rosin.

I’m ok with teams hating each other. I think it is good TV. I think it gets the fans interested. I’m very ok with fans booing Judge or any other Yankees player.

On the flip side, I’d like my team’s manager and coaches to be focused on the right things. Focus on the game. Focus on helping your players. Watching the third-base coach seems like a waste of time. But then, some gamesmanship is fun. I don’t know the line between gamesmanship and focusing on the wrong stuff.