MLB Postseason

[The Brain]

Originally posted by The Man
Manny is an idiot, but there has to be some rational psychological edge reason why he started yelling at Clemens because that ball wasn't two feet near his head. There is just no way he though that ball was near him.

I think Harold Reynolds on the "Baseball Tonight" had the most valid point.

After a player gets hit, the entire opposing lineup is just waiting for what would seem an inevitable retaliation. Even though both sides got warned, every Red Sox hitter would probably assume Clemens was going to send a warning shot anyway. Clemens' first three or four pitches to Ramirez were away... and then came that high pitch, which was up, but like you said, nowhere near his head. But it was probably close enough in <i>his</i> mind to be taken as the retaliation they were expecting. Hence his reaction.

As for the Zimmer-Martinez squabble, like I said before, Zim had no business going after Martinez, even though the entire incident traces directly back to him. Had Zimmer not brought his hands up toward Martinez' face (it certainly looked like he intended to either hit or grab him), then Martinez would not have had to take motions to defend himself.

<b>EDIT:</b>

Lost in the midst of the Yankees-Red Sox war is the fact that Dusty Baker is one win away from managing back-to-back World Series teams... only with two different teams. And mind you, it's not like the Cubs were on the cusp of greatness last season. We're talking about a team that had a 67-95 record.

If he gets there (of course you have to say "if", these <i>are</i> the Cubs after all), I definitely think he should win Manager of the Year, to acknowledge his job with both the Giants and Cubs the past two seasons.