Purgatory Online

Tuesday, April 01, 2003

Derek Jeter's injury last night was pretty ugly. It's pretty clear that it was a clean play - Blue Jays' catcher Ken Huckaby tried to go to his knees to block Jeter from getting to third, which is a textbook catcher's play - but good Lord, did that look bad. Huckaby's left knee was driven into the top of Jeter's shoulder (and subsequently his neck), and it looked like his right knee got him pretty good in the ribs, too. Jeter will go on the disabled list, of course, meaning the Yankees will have to do without his services for at least two weeks (and, according to this story, probably two to four months, even in a best-case scenario).

Another interesting facet of that Yankees-Blue Jays game: apparently the Jays had taken out an ad urging fans to boo Hideki "Godzilla" Matsui, the Yankees' latest gazillion-dollar addition. The ad was subsequently modified to remove the reference to Matsui, and Blue Jays' manager Carlos Tosca apologized to Yankee manager Joe Torre. Uh, why? Fans have a long and storied history of picking on particular opposing players, particularly ones from New York (Daaaaaaaaryyyyyl....Daaaaaaaaaryyyyl...). Given that Matsui has become sort of a poster boy for Steinbrenner's screw-the-salary-cap mentality, it makes perfect sense to me that less profligate clubs would single him out for special attention. That's not to say fans should be physically abusive or obscene, but a few extra "Godzilla sucks!" chants ain't gonna hurt nobody.

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