Yankees payback Rays

Baseball is the root of Shelley Duncan's family tree. His father Dave played on the championship Oakland A's teams of the Reggie Jackson era. Shelley's dad than went into coaching and has been Tony La Russa's highly respected pitching coach forever. Shelley grew up in the A's clubhouse and has learned a few things along the way about protecting your teammates.



Today was the first meeting of the Yankees/Rays since the controversial home plate collision involving a young aggressive Rays base runner Elliot Johnson and Yankees' prospect Francisco Cervelli. The catcher ended up in the hospital and will need surgery to repair his wrist.



Here's what Duncan said before the game,"I'm just hoping for a nice, good game. We'll see..."

Here's how Peter Abe at Lohud described what happened: "Shelley Duncan (of course) started the top of the second with a single. He tried to go to second as the ball rolled behind third base and was out by five feet. Duncan slid in with his spikes exceedingly high at Akinori Iwamura and was tagged out. He was immediately ejected." A brawl followed the ejection.



Just a nice day at the ballpark featuring good old-fashion country hardball. I'm sure Shelley's teammates appreciate the gesture.