These shitbags want Tampa Bay to forfeit a game they missed because there was A FUCKING HURRICANE!!! How Yankee fans can still proclaim a love for the pinstripes is beyond me.
How you fucking expect people to ignore thier families and just head to a ball game in NY while thier homes are being hit by a major fucking storm is beyond me.
Go BoSox.
Yeah, as if a major league ball player really has to worry about his mansion falling over.
Steinbrenner may be the spawn of satan, but not for this. He’s just being dilligent. Like a defense attorney moving to dismiss an open-and-shut case.
Well, it’s either that or the guy is more concerned with his family’s well-being than a replaceable, insured home.
Keep in mind not all ballplayers make $15 million a year. Still waiting to hear the outrage from Georgie on Kevin Brown.
Let’s be honest duffer, the hurricane was no surprise, the team had the opportunity to fly up to NY before Frances hit. Their Saturday and Sunday games were postponed in anticipation of the storm, they knew it was coming and could have made different arrangements.
The comissioner has no intention of giving them the forfeit, and the Yanks will just have to suck up the bad attendance and cost of free hot dogs they gave out to make their waiting fans happy. From your article, though, the team could be fined or have some other sort of punishment coming from Selig.
There seems to have been major miscommunication here too, apparently Yankee Stadium opened its doors at 11am and the Devil Rays didn’t even leave Tropicana Field until 1pm! I’d be pretty damn pissed if I was told they were going to be on time and they didn’t even start the trip until gametime.
Make no mistake, if the road trip started on Saturday instead of Monday, they would not have been home to help their families, and it would have been completely unthinkable that the entire team should fly home to help with the hurricane instead of sticking around for their games. That’s part of the damn job. When you average over a million a year in salary, there are certain concessions you have to make, like not taking off enmasse when there is a storm at home.
Don’t want that sort of responsibility? Great, then don’t take a job where you earn as much in one year as many people earn in their entire lives.
Cheesesteak, I’ll concede there’s more layers to this story than I covered in the OP. But “average salaries?” Please! If 1 guy makes $10 million a year and another makes $300,000/yr, they would “average” 5.15 million a year.
I have a recent pit thread of Selig. I’ve proven I’m no fan of that asshole. But to mention what a man makes in a year as a defense of him giving up trying to stay home to protect it? Or at the very least try to keep an eye on it? Or wanting to be around for his wife and children in such a time?
Fuck the family. Steinbrenner wants to make up the loss on the free hotdogs!
It’s one fusking baseball game that can be made up later! Shit, the Marlins are looking at 3 double-headers before the end of the year. Surely the prima-donnas in NY can suck it up and reschedule a double-header to make it up.
I can’t remember the last time one team demanded a forfeit of another under these circumstances. I’d sure love to know any precedent.
Of course, since Selig himself IS Satan (you Bush haters have the wrong man
) I’d be willing to bank on some loophole being found in the next day or two to award the win to the Yankees. They’re running scared about the BoSox catching up and Selig wants the merchandise and TV numbers to make up for loss of ticket revenue for other clubs.
Sorry,** Cheesesteak**, this wasn’t all directed to you personally. Just gave me another inspiration to rant. 
Oh give me a break. It’s a hurricane, they should be with their family if possible, rich or not.
Moreover, Tampa players don’t make nearly as much as you think they do. Out of the 25 man roster, only 8 make at least $1M, only 3 make over $2M, and only one makes over $3M.
Would this even have been an issue if NY’s lead within the division didn’t shrink from 10.5 to 2.5 in the last two weeks?
That and the fact that the Yankees are a wee bit short on pitching staff as of late.
Gotta love crazy George, he does what ever it takes to get that W
The Rays were told on Friday that their weekend home series was cancelled. They could have left with their families before the storm arrived, even at the major league mimimum salary they can well afford the airfare. They could have told the Yankees earlier that they had no intention of leaving Tampa before 1 pm. They failed to show up on time for a game and should forfeit. Of course, it’s politically correct for Selig to appear “sensitive” and deny the request, but the Yankees are in the right.
Actually, I would imagine that Yankee fans feel a little more love for Steinbrenner. He made an attempt to get a win that is technically his within the rules of the game. He attempted to get that guaranteed win at a time when a win for the Yankees is far from a guarantee, in the midst of a tight race with their most hated foes, a win without having to trot out anyone from his collection of ne-er-do-wells in the starting rotation, a win without further overusing the only 3 decent cogs in his bullpen.
And, he got to do all this by making life more uncomfortable and difficult for Bud Selig. For that alone, I salute Steinbrenner and I can’t stand the Yankees.
Seems to me they need 'em more and more these days. And I love love love love LOVE what happened to Kevin Brown. Class act, that guy. :rolleyes:
Go Cards.
Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t Kevin Brown punch something and break his hand?
I’ll freely concede your second point here, Tampa’s players don’t make near the league average. I realized that after I posted, but haven’t been back on the PC since.
On the first point, it’s not so much richness as opposed to job responsibilities. A policeman is going to be rather busy during a crisis, he can’t be with his family, similarly with firefighters etc. They know that they won’t be around in a big emergency going in, so they can’t use that as an excuse for not doing their jobs when it comes to pass.
Baseball players, while their jobs are not critical in any way, also should know that they are responsible to work every single game, and cannot expect to take any days off for personal stuff without specific dispensation from the team. The team should also not be giving all their players the weekend off because of a storm unless it is agreed to by the other team, which it obviously wasn’t.
It’s not so much that the game had to be rescheduled, but Tampa never told the Yankees in advance! If they wanted to delay the game, they could get league approval like they did with the Tigers games, they didn’t. As a result, the Yankees players spent all day at the stadium, as if it were a double header, the stadium was open 8 extra hours with thousands of fans putzing around the whole day. All this could have been avoided with advance notice and approval. If they couldn’t GET approval, then we know the league expected them to play the game, and they decided to not show.
The commissioner’s office knows more of the details, I’m interested to see what they choose to do with this, that will tell me more than any reporter’s take on it.
Here the Devil Ray’s official statement on the matter.
The last time a team forfeited for not showing up on time was July 17, 1902.
Ok, sorry I was a bit confused. I though Chastain was saying Steinbrenner was being an asshole regarding Brown.
According to this article, there’s been at least one since then.
You’re right. As a Sox fan, I think I block the year 1918 out of my mind.
Honey had a great point. 1918. Maybe it’s fated?
In case anyone is confused about my stance. Steinbrenner is shit, but Selig should be part of my marshmallow roast. (I suck at linking, maybe someone can post why I invited all Dopers to a whisky-drinking bonfire?)