On the Yankees beat

Dormant blog lately, so I'll chime in with an opinion even if it's a day late.

IMO rookies will continue bratty behavior if it seems to work for them (see history of Jose Reyes). If it doesn't, they learn.

In Joba's case, luckily he got promptly, thoroughly, and publicly smacked for his foolishness, so hopefully we won't have to see it again and again.

As for Kennedy, he made it clear from the start that he didn't accept that he needed to be sent down, and then after doing well in one outing against minor leaguer he was like, 'I told you so.' Looks as if management may need to let him stand in the corner until he gets it.

Diane,

Always quiet after a loss. I hear you on the Kids stuff. These days it seems there are more kids that don,t "know their place" for lack of a better term. They all want to skip the hard work stages and get right to the glory. Especially those that are fast tracked. They never dealt with the struggles so they don't know how to deal with adversity. Thats why some org's won't push people through the system fast unless they are of exceptional mental make-up.

Hard to determine that for a 20 YO though.

I can't wait for AROD and Jorge to be back in the lineup.

I thought Ensberg would provide some pop while AROD was convalescing but alas another misguided unfounded notion of mine although he has shown to be a solid defensive 3B.

And a funny guy.

Nudge,

There were some who thought it shameful that a few fans booed Joba. My feeling is that fans have been extraordinarily generous with the young man and that it's best he learn now that he's not teflon -- the crowd giveth and the crowd taketh away.

Diane,
What happened with Joba? I haven't been able to watch the last two games so I don't know what you mean by "his foolishness". Did he do something after he gave up the HR or do you mean his fist pumping stuff in general?

On the kids: I coach my son's little league and I teach them proper sportsmanship and so forth but there are kids who's parents evidently do not know much about sports or sportsmanship because they are all about the celebrations and rituals when they are not even very good at the game. There was one kid on another team who struck out one of our kids and was pumping his fist ala Joba and then pointed to the bench and told the batter to go sit down. I went out and told him he better start acting like a good sport and stop all the nonsense. Another kid was doing the post game handshake thing and telling my team "you suck" instead of "good game" even though my team had won the game. I took him aside and chewed him out too and I told him he would never play on a winning team with his attitude.
Those types of kids are "Sportscenter kids" because they just like all the crap they see on that show and they don't know the first thing about playing the game the right way. Hey, I like to have fun, but I'm not going to allow my team to make the other kids feel bad while doing so.

Jim A.,

Joba's foolishness: Five weeks into his first season in the bigs he decides he can call a better game than an experienced and well-respected major league pitcher. Shakes him off repeatedly, gets the comeuppance he deserves right under the bright lights in the big city, and hopefully that's the end of that delusion.

My bad!!!

"experienced and well-respected major league CATCHER", not pitcher!

Sorry... :-(

A Molina of the Molinas, in fact...
;-)

He (Joba) did the same thing last year. I thought then that he needed a kick in the pants, now (as you pointed out) he will throw what the catcher calls...if it's good enough for CMW, Andy etc., it's good enough for him. Sometimes I think the kids now days have no respect for the older guys. They forget, the older guys are still playing because they know what they are doing, and are good at what they do.
If he had known (as Molina did) that the batter is a dead RED hitter...maybe he would have had a better pitch, and saved the game. 27/08.

Thanks Diane, I actually forgot about him shaking Bengi, I mean Yadier, I made Gustalvo, I mean Jose off three times. I think Posada would have gone out and looked him in the eye and said "head or gut" and then belted him and said "shake that off, punk". I know Thurman would have.

LOL, Jim A.

I wondered at the time what Posada would have done in that situation... now I know... ;-D