So About Last Night

Wow, Christian, that's some uniform-grabbing! (CHARLES KRUPA/AP)

Yes, the baseball world was spun back on its axis last night.

There's a writer for NBC Sports named Bill Baer. Ol' Bill is a stats-loving sabermetric-type o'chap who thinks modern baseball should be all about touchdown dances and fun! Those who play hard are not fun! Heck, just look at this piece of prose, about how some Cubs are telling Javier Baez to tone his game down just a smidge.

Over in Boston, the Yankees and Red Sox reignited THE RIVALRY(c), as Brock Holt was upset by a hard Tyler Austin slide.

In Twitter-land and other parts of the interwebs, both sides are accusing the other of bias. Because, they're...you know...fans.

Yawn.

Here's the deal: I call BS when I see it. Know that I love the sport and am not enamored with the modern version of it. I couldn't care less whether Jackie Robinson smiled, but I knew he was one hard-nosed SOB on the field.

I would have loved him on the Yankees. That's how this goes.

Put a man on second base to start extra innings? Thanks, Rob Manfred (because we all know he wants it at the big league level).

If I had a problem with Austin's slide, I'd tell you. Given my propensity for old time baseball (Eddie Shore? Oh...wait...wrong movie), you will understand that I have minimal problem with Austin. My only beef -- slightly rare, if you will -- is that Austin could have gotten up, patted Holt on the back (not too hard now) and said, "Hey. You OK? Incidentally, where do you go to get your hair that blonde?" and trotted back to the dugout.

Let's not take note of -- thanks to the modern rules (aka "The Chase Utley Rule") -- middle infielders act like Tom Brady when a feather breezes by them.

"WAIT! That's a 15-yard penalty! Where's the flag!"

But from the top of Mount Washington through the "summer houses" of Newport, out through the Cape and sort of towards the Berkshires (which is more Yankees-land than New Englanders ever wish to admit), there was a howl of "You'll get yours, Austin!"

And he did, in the form of a Joe Kelly fastball on his second try. Shawn Estes, come on down!


Austin took offense -- his business, I guess. The benches emptied. We had a donnybrook!

(Part of me would love for Austin to do the old Don Baylor routine. That is, to treat the hit by pitch as if a mosquito just bit him, drop the bat, and run to first.)

In the Mahopac home office, I glanced, and continued about my business. Call me crazy, but I'm a bottom-line guy. This is all that matters to me...

Funny, 35-to-1 or whatever the Red Sox won by on Monday night suddenly was irrelevant. All of the handwringing about Giancarlo Stanton and his one-million strikeouts ended. Aaron Boone's awful bullpen decisions? Moot points.

Yankees 10. Red Sox 7. That's all that matters for now.

Here's the bigger takeaway: these teams play way too much now. There is too much divisional play, so some luster has disappeared. Plus with modern-day baseball, there's a lot of fraternizing. When it came to Yankees/Red Sox, whether it was 1904 and "Nuf Ced" McGreevy or 1949 or 1974-78 or 1999-2005 (give or take) there was genuine hatred, especially with everything pre-1994 (ish).

Sweet Lou and Pudge, 1976 (Ned Martin and Hawk Harrelson on TV-38).


Oh, Pedro.

So last night gave this "Greatest Rivalry" (which stands up with Ohio State/Michigan, Giants/Dodgers, Bruins/Canadiens, etc) a nifty little boost.

And it's not over.

Incidentally, before you go on and dump your chowder on each side, my understanding is that Jerry Remy was fair on NESN, and I know for a fact David Cone was excellent on YES. Each one saw the others side quite well.

I see the same here. I get why Holt is mad, and Austin should have patted him on the back. It all likely ends there.

Kelly wants to protect his teammate? Fine. Do it once. But he doubled-down, and then it was time to play the feud, with catcher Christian Varquez, who was rightly called out by John Flaherty on YES for not protecting Kelly fast enough, going to the Jason Varitek School of Tough Guy Mask-Wearing.

Varitek ("The Captain" -- as noted by the "C" on his jersey) and Mr. Rodriguez, 2004.

So it goes. The Republic did not burn down. Fans from each side will continue to spout utterly dumb things.

All this over a slide. But we need more hot-dogging?

They'll play another 17 times. Including tonight.