The fallout continues for Yanks spikemaster Shelley Duncan. The fine and three-game suspension he received for the Yankees-Rays almost-fistfight was just the beginning.
See, just when you think every angle of a story has been covered, Frank Coffey and his eTrueSports Goodfellas prove once again that they dig deeper than any other news organization. (As for what they dig—who are we to judge?)
New York – Bob Watson, MLB’s dean of discipline, has handed Shelley Duncan an additional punishment resulting from last week’s Yankee-Tampa Rays flareup, ordering the Yankee first baseman to write, “I will not slide into second base with my spikes high,” 500 times on college-ruled paper.
“Bummer,” said a subdued …read more

Like all bench-clearing fights, the Yankees-Devil Rays brawl last week touched off the usual chatter about great skirmishes of the past.
A comment by faithful reader Caesar on this post got us thinking about one classic smackdown in particular: Pedro Martinez and Don Zimmer in Game 3 of the ALCS. Pre-cockfighting Pedro was pitching for the Boston Red Sox at the time and Zimmer was sleeping with the enemy on the New York Yankees coaching staff.
You’d think this video would be easy to find. Not so much. Here’s what we found. The quality isn’t great and every after the first 40 …read more

Somewhere, Joe Torre enjoying a cocktail, laughing, and indulging in some schadenfreude. 
Joe Girardi, manager of the New York Yankees, has been fined as a result of the brawl between his team and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. NYY players Melky Cabrera were fined and suspended for a trio of games; Rays right fielder and “You Know” master Jonny Gomes has been fined and be on the sidelines for two games.
We’re happy, but not as happy as we would have been if had been a Yankees-Red Sox fight that bagged the boys in pinstripes.

You know us. Whenever there’s a story that even remotely casts the New York Yankees in a bad light, we’re all over it like the fawning media and post-Super Bowl Eli Manning.
That being said, we feel compelled to post this follow-up on yesterday’s Yanks-Rays brawl.
Seems Tampa Bay GM Joe Maddon thinks those Damn Yankees are also Dirty Yankees:
“What you saw today was the definition of a dirty play. There’s no room for that in our game. It’s contemptible. It’s wrong. It’s borderline criminal. I can’t believe they did that.”
Can you believe those jerks? What’s wrong with them? Why they should—oh …read more

The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Devil Rays let the games begin today in true feisty fashion: Hockey’s little cousin, the baseball brawl.
Unless our Blog Foddah Radar is slightly out of tune and needs recalibration, this marks the first bench clearing brawl of the pre-season.
The teams made it all of two innings before tempers flared. (Sort of. A homeplate crash that injured a Bronx Bombers would-be catcher set the tone between these teams several days ago.)
In the first inning, Yankees pitcher Heath Phillips got yanked—pun intended—for beaning Rays prospect Evan Longoria, who is an actual male and not a …read more