Just 4 days after the Rays’ Elliot Johnson ran over Yankees’ catcher Francisco Cervelli during a play at the plate, we knew there was probably retaliation coming during their game this afternoon.

That retaliation came, but it was not the way it should have been done.  When one team does something to the other, you expect a player from the other team to get a fastball to the ribs and that’s the end of it.  But, for Yankees’ Shelly Duncan, he took it upon himself to retaliate in a more dangerous fashion.  Duncan hit a hard grounder that glanced off the glove of 3rd baseman Evan Longoria and just into left field.  He tried to stretch his single into a double, but the throw beat him by a good 10 ft, but that didn’t stop Duncan.  He slid into 2nd base, spikes high, and landed the spikes into the right leg of Akinori Iwamura, which brought right-fielder Jonny Gomes flying into the infield and bowled over Duncan, clearing both benches.

Going back to the play at home on Saturday, Yankees’ manager Joe Girardi  said “It’s just disheartening. It’s spring training, I just don’t understand,” yet I haven’t seen him come out against Duncan putting his spikes into the leg of Iwamura?  Girardi went on to say “I want you to play hard. I want you to hustle, but to me it’s not the time to do it.”  If Girardi thinks that spring training isn’t the place for “hard plays,” then he better come with a strong apology to the Iwamura, or make Shelly Duncan make that apology.  According to a quote from Duncan after the game, sounds as if he doesn’t think he did anything wrong

“That was sort of second nature,” he said. “I was taught from T-ball all the way up to have your teammate’s back. With that guy trying to hurt a teammate, I just acted how I acted.”

News flash to Shelly Duncan, since he’s been playing T-ball, he knows that “having your teammates back,” does not include going spikes high on someone, let alone already have it in your mind that you’re going to do that.  What is Duncan thinking?  He knows, as well as manager Joe Girardi, that if a catcher blocks the plate the runner has the same right to the baseline and the plate that the catcher does, so guess what, he’s going to run over.  Catchers are trained to block the plate to keep the run from scoring, runners are trained to try and knock the ball loose and get that run, it’s a part of baseball.  Not one time, in all my years of playing baseball, was I ever told by a coach to go spikes high on someone because your catcher got lit up.

If the Yankees weren’t the most hated team in baseball before, they might have just earned that now.

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