In the sixth inning of a recent game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Yankee manager Joe Torre saw something on the scoreboard screen that upset him. The Daily News reports that in an unidentified baseball videogame being played in front of the entire stadium, fans repeatedly decided to use the brushback/beanball strategy on Yankee third baseman Alex Rodriguez, hitting his in-game avatar once.
"It’s ridiculous. Some of the videos they have period, it’s all about violence. There are certain cities, one of our players gets knocked down and they start laughing and cheering. I don’t understand it.
To me, this game is about playing it and not about hurting somebody. To me, if you show it at a ballpark, you’re telling the youngsters it’s OK to do it and that’s not a good message to send. I don’t know if it’s hockey – it’s a little more of a violent game than ours – and I’m not sure if that’s a carryover in what they do or how they promote.
It certainly lacks good sense, I think."
This is just another chapter in the long history of animosity between these two ballclubs. The most recent prior incident occurred back in May, when A-Rod distracted a Blue Jays infielder trying to catch a pop-up by yelling, "HA!" as he attempted to make the play. Toronto manager John Gibbons called that "bush league," and to be honest, he was right.
As a longtime ballplayer, myself, I just feel that the actions by the fans in question are sending the wrong message about baseball, itself. You throw at a guy’s head when he squares too early on a suicide squeeze – not just for sh*ts and giggles.
