June 2, 2007

Lowell Explains

Yankee fans were not too pleased with Mike Lowell ramming into and knocking down Robinson Cano this afternoon.

AP:
"Just a clean play," said Lowell, who spent his first four professional seasons in the Yankees organization. "They taught me how to do it."
Globe:
We had two rules: You can never peel off, you had to slide no matter if you had to slide halfway; and if the second baseman tried to tag you, you did everything in your power to not let him get rid of the ball. I'm not throwing an elbow or anything, but I'm trying to make him not be able to throw the ball.

5 comments:

s1c said...

Jeff Jacobs of the Hartford Courant:
Has an update on M-alphabet:

Mientkiewicz was able to sit up as he was carted off the field. He was taken to Mass General, where tests revealed a mild concussion, cervical sprain and fractured bone in his right wrist. He will be placed on the disabled list today.

Fractured wrist, I wonder which DL (60 days)?

Zenslinger said...

The thing at first base was completely unintentional. But the DP thing -- I watched the replay -- would indeed have pissed me off if A-Rod had done it.

Ron said...

I thought A-Rod's elbow to DP and the "Mine" thing both felt cheap, and I would have been embarrassed if a member of the Sox had done either. But Lowell taking out Cano feels different. Maybe because it doesn't smack of desperation. Maybe because there is no debate about it being a clean play. I'm not sure.

I don't think it's because Lowell is on the Sox, but I'm hardly unbiased. I try to give players there due though, and recognize when other players or teams make great plays.

Maybe it comes from living in a house with split loyalties (wife is a Mets fan, as I've said before. And her parents are Yankee fans).

I dunno. I don't really have a problem with "Mine" I guess. Cheap, but it was effective and within the rules since the ump didn't call interference. The elbow to DP though - that feels just like the Arroyo glove slapping incident.

Sorry, rambling....

CaKeY said...

I dont think it was dirty or cheap or anything bad. It was hard-nosed. If you dont want to get run over, get out of the base path. The only thing I guess I wouldve liked to have seen was Lowell help him up and give him a pat on the ass.

Jim said...

The way I saw the Lowell/Cano play, Lowell had the base line as he was running to 2nd. Cano came at him to tag him. Lowell could have tried to avoid the tag, potentially leading to an automatic out for leaving the base line. Instead, he dropped down, leading Cano to him, and then be body-checked Cano to disrupt his throw to first. Nothing dirty here. In fact, Cano made a good play to get the throw to first. Lowell later said that he was taught coming up with the Yanks to never be an automatic out on those plays (not his exact words).

I saw the Minky play as the definition of an accident. Right place, right time, unfortunate sequence of events. Minky lost his balance reaching for Jeter's bad throw (which may have been influenced by Cano's bad throw to him) just as Lowell crossed the bag and he slammed into Lowell. Tough luck. Glad our guy didn't get hurt.